Fallen Heroes
by Andais DiCaporetti
Summary: A stranger appears as Frieza is destroyed. Could she actually be the last female Saiyan? Could she be the key to bringing down the androids and Cell and repair the broken heart of a certain man from the future? Or will she fall like his future predicts.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: i don't own it, wish i did but i don't. if you have a few minutes after please review.

Chapter One

Frieza sat up and looked at his father.

"Set a course for Earth, Father." he said in a raspy voice.

"Planet Earth? Whatever for, my son?" King Cold asked.

"Because I'd like to blow it up."

"Change course!" King Cold yelled to the crew.

I was sitting alone in the mess hall of Frieza's ship. At the table across from mine, I heard the three men chatting.

"I heard our next stop is Earth." said the man with brown hair.

"Why?" asked the blonde haired one.

"Well, you remember how Frieza got his ass kicked by the Saiyan guy, Gogo, or whatever his name was? Apparently he lives there and Frieza wants to kill him."

I jumped up and ran to my cabin. 'Now all I have to do is think of a way to get out.'

I pulled on my armor, latched my father's sword to my back, and went to the door.

"I guess this will be the last time I ever come in here." I whispered looking around my small room. My eyes stopped at the necklace on the dresser. The small pendant of the necklace had a heart in the center with two hands holding it and a crown on top of the heart etched into it. I slipped the long chain over my head and tucked it under my armor as I left my room. As I ran down the hall, I pulled my long black hair up into a bun on the back of my head and tried to tame my spiky bangs.

Vegeta, Piccolo, Yamcha, Krillin, Gohan, Tien, Chaotzu, and Bulma waited on the cliff for the moment when Frieza would show up. They had all, except Bulma, felt his power level coming towards Earth and had met here to see if it was true.

"He's here!" Piccolo bellowed from the cliff over looking the valley below. A large circular disk descended from the sky moments later.

As I entered the hangar of the ship, the commanding officer grabbed my by the neck and threw me up against the wall.

"You think just because your father was King Vegeta's advisor you can waltz in here two minutes late? You've got a lot to learn, young lady. Get in line now!" He threw me down onto the ground. I got up and walked to my place in line. "We are about to land on planet Earth. Our orders are to secure the area surrounding the ship. Understand?"

"Sir, yes sir!" A man came in and started whispering to the commanding officer.

The man standing beside me leaned over and whispered in her ear. "Your lucky. He told us all that he was going to kill you."

"Yeah right. Like that weakling could even catch me." I replied.

"Move out." the commanding office said. We marched out of the hangar with me bringing up the rear. As the soldiers fell into lines, I found a group of rocks and ran to the for cover. The commanding officer turned to his troops. "Hey! Where did that damned girl go?"

The man that was standing beside me spoke, "Sir, she went back inside. I think she was scared."

"Argh! When I get my hands on that little bitch, she'll never see the light of day again."

Frieza and his father suddenly appeared beside the commanding officer.

"So this is the planet Earth. My, how very quaint. I will make his suffer for what he did to me! I will make this whole planet suffer!" Frieza yelled.

"Yes, do be quick about it. I'd rather not stay on this pathetic little mud ball. Not that I don't just love it here, but I don't see why we just can't simple destroy the planet now." King Cold said.

"You can be absolutely naughty, father. It's impressive. And here I wondered where I picked up my knack for it."

"I take great pride in the fact that I have taught you all the necessary skills of life. Use them well."

"Indeed I will. For it just so happens that I have also learned from you the fine art of revenge. Allow me to demonstrate by vaporizing all of the Saiyans friends one by one." Frieza started laughing. "And my oh my, won't he be surprised when he returns home and finds no one here to welcome him but me."

The Z fighters, plus Bulma, climbed up the rocks to get a closer look at what was happening. Yamcha paused, "I don't think I can do this, you guys."

"Now all of you, begin your search, and when you find them show no mercy." Frieza yelled to the troops. I snuck around to the back of the ship, away from everyone, and flew up to a cliff.

"Yes sir!" They jumped up into the air but came crashing back down in pieces a few seconds later. A young man with purple hair descended from the sky.

"Oh, so you must be Frieza. I've been waiting a long time to meet you, face to face." the young man said. He reduced Frieza's army to nothing in mere seconds. "Now you two are going down."

King Cold laughed, "One thing is certain, if nothing else, I'd say this creature is quite the comedian."

"He is at that. I'll tell you what kid, let me give you a piece of advise. 'He who acquires his skills quickly is he who is first to perish'."

"Thanks for the tip. Listen up, now I've got one for you Frieza. 'Know your enemy'. You've already made some big assumptions about me and that's a mistake that's going to cost you dearly."

"You insolent brat! You should really learn to control your tongue."

"Just destroy him already." King Cold said. "We haven't got all day."

"Father, have some patients, I just want to have a little fun if you don't mind."

"He's right though. You don't have all day, more like five minutes." the young man said.

"Well that's too bad, and here I'd made dinner plans."

"So I've heard. Well sorry Frieza, but I'm canceling your date with Goku."

"What's a Goku?" King Cold asked with a confused look on his face.

"Father, please, I know your bored but try to keep up." Frieza turned to the young man, "So I take it you know that worthless Saiyan?"

"By reputation, but we'll meet soon." the young man said.

"Oh, but don't be so certain."

"But I couldn't be more certain, Frieza. Anytime now Goku will be coming home, and only one of us is going to be here waiting for him. Get it?"

"Definitely, as it so happens, I was just about to suggest that very thing myself. It's so nice that you and I can finally agree on something. Don't you think?"

"For once, you're right."

"Well then, I guess all that's left is for me to decide how I'm going to annihilate you."

"Enough kidding around. It's time you understood who I really am. So I'll tell you what, I'm gonna let you two in on a little secret. You're about to find out what it's like to fight a real super Saiyan," he smirked. "and I'm not talking about Goku."

"You crack me up kid, ha ha ha! I've never met anyone who's laid it on quite as thick as you." Frieza said. The young man only smiled as rocks and other debris flew away from him. His hair spiked up towards the sky turning yellow, and his eyes turned a vivid green. Frieza backed away, frightened.

"Is it something I said?" Without warning, Frieza threw a ki blast at the young man and he disappeared in the smoke cloud.

"Well, I'd say that was all rather anticlimactic. Wouldn't you say? I mean the little runt certainly didn't last very long, now did he?" King Cold asked, assuming the young man was dead.

"Well what did you expect? He was only a… a…" Frieza paused as the young man reappeared unscathed.

"I really hope that's not the best you can do, cause if it is you better give up now. You can't win, Frieza."

"We'll just see about that, boy. Take this!!" Frieza yelled, throwing another energy ball at the young man.

"Frieza, you'll destroy us all!!" King Cold yelled. The young man stopped the ball and threw it behind him.

The Z fighters had just made it to the edge of the cliff overlooking the valley where Frieza's ship was.

"Hey guys, what's going on? I can't see!" Bulma yelled from the back of the crowd. She pushed to the front. "What in the world happened down there, Yamcha?"

"It looks to me like you're running out of tricks, Frieza."

"This Saiyan is really something else." King Cold remarked.

"Ok, that's two. I'll give you one more chance to hit me with everything you've got and then that's it, strike three Frieza. Game over, you're out."

"It's time we put an end to this." Frieza said, calmly.

I watched as Frieza rose into the air and formed a huge fiery orange ki ball in his open palm. A few seconds after he released it, I saw it engulf the purple haired man.

The Z fighters watched the large ball sink into the Earth.

"Everyone get down!" Krillin yelled.

I watched as the ki ball suck deeper and deeper into the ground. 'This is it.' I thought, looking down at Frieza.

"I'd rather be out here dying, than in there under your control." I said quietly to myself. As I finished my sentence, the ball stopped and started to come back out. The young man appeared underneath it and Frieza shot a small blast at it making it exploded. All of a sudden, the young man appeared beside her on the cliff. He grabbed for his sword but stopped.

"Get back." he said to her. "Hey Frieza!" he shouted at Frieza as he shot a ki ball at him. Frieza dodge it giving the man time to go for his sword. His sword made a strangely pleasing sound as he cut Frieza to bits and incinerated them.

With Frieza gone, the Z fighters were left in awe as he killed King Cold.

The purple haired man touched down on the cliff beside me again.

"What's your name?" He asked me.

"Corbin."

"You're a Saiyan."

"Yes, I escaped to find my guardian. His name is Prince Vegeta." Recognition crossed the man's face. Her black eyes searched his. His eyes told me that he knew Vegeta well, but he didn't know who I was. People were chatting on another cliff close to us. I studied them and found Vegeta among there ranks. I flew over to him and bowed as low as I could.

"Prince Vegeta."

"Corbin?" I stood and looked back at the man below us.

"I'm going to meet Goku. He's going to be touching down about a mile south of here. If you wanna follow me, I can show you where." He said and took off without looking back.

"Who's Goku?" I asked Vegeta. "And what the hell are you wearing?"


	2. Chapter Two

A/N: don't own it. Enjoy

After some debate, we followed the purple haired man. As we touching down behind him, Vegeta and I split off from the group sitting away from the them.

"Let's spar." he said in a gruff voice.

"Are you sure?" I asked, smirking. "I wouldn't want to get that pretty pink shirt of yours all dirty." With one tug, he ripped the shirt to pieces. Everyone in the group looked startled for a second. I took my sword off and laid it down gently. We sparred for a few minutes before he grabbed me by the neck and pulled me close to him.

"Stronger and quicker than I remember." He held me like that for a few seconds before my face turned red.

"Vegeta! You're hurting her!" Bulma screamed. As she yelled at him, his grip lessened a bit giving me enough room to get a away. I spun on my heel and delivered a strong round house kick to his jaw.

He watched her every move. She said her name was Corbin. He couldn't place her face but he had heard the name. All of a sudden it hit him. There was a grave marker at the capsule corp. compound that had her name on it. He tried to remember the date on it. She had been buried between Goku and his father and had died sometime between Goku's death and the fight with the androids. Had he ever asked his mother about her? He couldn't remember. She was amazing. Her lithe body moved like a dancer as she avoided and blocked punches and kicks, throwing a few herself. He was so caught up in her and he barely felt Goku approaching.

I watched as a black spiky haired man climb out of the tiny spaceship. So this must be Kakarrot or Goku as they call him here.

"Hey guys!" he said, cheerfully. "Where's Frieza?"

"Well, you won't believe it but this guy took care of him." Bulma said putting an arm around the purple haired man. "He knew exactly where you would land too."

"Do you know him?" Krillin asked.

"No, I've never seen him in my life." Goku answered.

"Goku," the purple haired man said. "I need to speak to you. In private." A loud shout of protest went through the group.

"It's okay guys." Goku followed the young man across the crater that his ship had made. I watched in awe as they both transformed into super Saiyans and sparred. They stopped abruptly and started talking. After a few minutes, the purple haired man disappeared and Goku came back.

As the young man prepared his time capsule, he began thinking about her again. 'Should I warn her? Should I tell her she's going to die?' he thought. He put the idea out of his head as he thought about what his mother had said.

"Don't muck around in their lives. Give Goku the antidote, warn him about the androids, and leave. We don't want to alter their future too much."

He looked down at the gathering as his time capsule rose above them and waved good bye.

The green one with the big ears broke the news to us. We had three years to prepare for the androids. As the group dispersed, the blue haired woman named Bulma approached me.

"You're welcome to stay with me. Vegeta stays there too."

"Thank you for your hospitality." I said, bowing slightly.

"Come with me, brat. I'll take you there." Vegeta said, taking off into the air. I followed him, catching up quickly.

"We're right behind you." Bulma cried. "Come on, stud." She grabbed a hold of Yamcha and they followed.

"I saw you on Namek. I thought you were dead after you left for here and didn't come back."

"Well obviously I'm not dead. Our training starts in the morning. I will come and get you." He was quiet for the rest of the flight. I looked up at the golden dome as we landed. This place was so big she could have housed an army in it. What the hell did she need all this space for? I quickly learned, as Bulma gave me the grand tour, that Bulma and her father, Dr. Briefs, were scientists and they needed the space for there lab which took up the entire golden dome. Bulma took me to her room to get me some clothes for the night.

"Corbin?" Bulma said from inside her enormous closet.

"Yes?"

"Honey, I don't want to sound rude but, how old are you?"

"Fifteen." I replied.

"My goodness! You look and act so much older than that. Well, anyway, I just wanted to know because I'm going to buy you some new clothes tomorrow. I wanted to make sure I got something age appropriate." I looked down at my uniform. Had I really worn this same style all my life?

"Thank you, Miss Bulma. You are very generous."

"Honey, call me Bulma, no miss stuff." she said coming out of the closet with some clothes in her hands. "I have a pair of PJ's for you and a set of clothes for you to wear tomorrow." She lead me to my room. "If you need anything the intercom is right beside the door. You just press the button and talk. I'll hear you as long as I'm in the compound." She left me alone in the huge room almost five times bigger than my last and only room. I put the clothes on the desk and crawled into the king size bed.

I was standing in the middle of a room full of adult soldiers. The door burst open suddenly and someone grabbed my shoulder.

"Go hide." he said urgently. I ran to a row of cabinets and got inside.

"So, your planning to resist me?" asked a harsh, husky voice. My father, the man that had told me to hide, and a very young woman pushed to the front of the group. "I take it you two are the leaders?" Frieza looked at the guards and they grabbed them. "Take them away." he paused. "Their daughter is in the cabinet on the far side of the room, bring her too." We were taken to the throne room and my parents were thrown on the floor at Frieza's feet. I was taken to the side.

"The punishment for treason is death. Is there anything you'd like to say before your sentence is carried out?"

"You will meet your down fall, Frieza. I only wish I could be there to see it." my father said.

"Too bad for you." He killed both of them in the blink of an eye. I kept quiet and tried to force the tears back as Frieza approached me.

"Now as for you, girl. When ever you think of resisting me, I want you to remember this day. And if that's not enough, look at this." He placed his hand on my upper arm and seared my flesh with his ki. After everyone had left, I walked to the bodies of my parents. I took my father's sword and my mother's necklace.

"I promise, Daddy. I will become big and strong like you and I'll never give up your fight." Something crashed behind me. I ran from the room and head first into what felt like a brick wall.

"Come with me, brat. I'll take care of you now." I followed Vegeta down the hall and to my room.

I woke up covered in sweat from the dream. I hadn't thought about that night, nine years ago, in some time. As my pulse went back to normal, the door to my room busted open.

"It's time to train." I grabbed a tank top and a pair of shorts from the pile of clothes Bulma gave me and met Vegeta down in the kitchen for a bite to eat. We trained in the back yard of the compound for a few hours and came in shortly before lunch time.

"Hello you two." Bulma said as we came into the kitchen. Vegeta sat down and started gobbling food.

"I'm going to take a shower." I said and went to my room.

After Corbin left the room, Bulma turned to Vegeta.

"Did you put all those scars on her? That burn mark on her arm looks horrible."

"That scar came from Frieza, the night he killed her parents." Vegeta said between mouthfuls. He finished eating quickly to avoid more questions.

"Oh Vegeta?" she said as he was leaving. "You're tearing up my grass. Take your fighting somewhere else." He was gone by the time she finished her sentence.

'I really don't know how she convinced me to do this.' I thought to myself. Bulma and I were standing in the middle of hell. She called it the mall. By the time she was finished shopping for me, both of our hands were full of bags and they barely fit in the car.

"Oh! You know what I'm going to do?! I'm going to throw a party for you!" she exclaimed as we approached the compound. "It's going to be fabulous! We'll have it tomorrow night."

"Can't wait." I said sarcastically. She didn't even catch it.

At six pm the next night, Bulma was standing in my room trying to dress me like a doll. She had chosen the black satin sleeveless dress. It stopped at the knees and had, what Bulma had called, tulle underneath the skirt to make it puff out. She pulled a pair of strapy black two inch heels out of the box and put them on me.

"Now what do we do with your hair?" I pulled my shoulder length black hair up into a bun.

"What about this?" I asked her.

"That's perfect!" I grabbed my mother's necklace off the night stand and put it on. The v-neck of the dress displayed it perfectly.

'I could get use to this. I like it here.' I thought to myself, not that I had much to compare to. I had been born on Frieza's ship and had only been off of it a handful of times to exterminate planets. She took my hand and spun me around once.

"You're ready." The golden dome of Capsule Corp., a.k.a Bulma's lab, had been cleaned out for the party and the crowd inside was huge. Bulma took my arm and lead me around to meet everyone. Most of the people were elected government officials that had contracts through Capsule Corp. but as I scanned the room I found all the people that were on the cliff two days ago.

"A toast!" Bulma said after she'd introduced me to most everyone there. "To Corbin, our new friend. May she find comfort and happiness in my home and on our planet." Cheers rang through the dome and I finished my fourth glass of champagne. The room slowly started to empty as the night grew on.

"Corbin, do you have any plans for tomorrow?" Kakarrot asked me.

"Not as far as I know." I answered, my head swam a bit.

"We would be honored if you would come by tomorrow and train with us at my house."

"Of course, I'll be there." I walked to the bar to get another glass of champagne.

"You look very lovely tonight." I turned to face the voice. It was the dark haired one with the scars on his face, Bulma's boyfriend Yamcha.

"Thank you."

"You really are beautiful." he said, caressing my shoulder. I looked around the room noticing all the government officials were gone and the only people left were the fighters from the cliff. I drank the rest of my champagne and set my glass on the bar.

"Have you ever been punched in the face by a Saiyan?" I asked, ordering another glass of champagne.

"As a matter of fact,…" As I turned from the bar to Yamcha, I put my full strength into my swing, punching him right in the jaw. He sailed across the dome and landed at Vegeta's feet. He looked at me with a smirk on his face. Everyone circled around Yamcha and then looked back at me.

"Oops." I said, sipping champagne.


	3. Chapter Three

A/N: it has taken me a while to get this up. My apologies. For the reader who asked, no I can't draw. I did however try to describe her more. If it's not enough please let me know. Enjoy!

Vegeta and I stood side by side smirking as the ambulance took Yamcha away. Apparently I had broken his jaw.

"Corbin," Bulma said, coming to stand in front of Vegeta and me. "What did he do to you?" She grabbed a hold of me, hugging me tight. "Did he hurt you?"

"No, Bulma, he didn't hurt me."

"Well, I will be going straight to the hospital tomorrow morning to tell him he is not welcome in my house anymore and I might just break the other side of his jaw. How dare he touch you."

"Bulma, I'm sorry I ruined the rest of your lovely party. If you will excuse me, I'm going to retired for the rest of the night." I left the now empty dome and walked to my room. Once inside my bathroom, I looked in the mirror and saw that I was scowling. The same scowl Vegeta wore non stop. Strands of my unruly Saiyan hair had come out of my bun, so I pulled the rubber band out. My hair bounced back to life immediately, the clumped spikes pointing down towards the ground. I kind of looked like the singer from one of Bulma's favorite hair bands. I took my dress off and laid it on the vanity table. My body was toned. I didn't look nearly as strong as I was and the scars all over my body, mostly cuts and burns, showed how strong I was. Bulma had made the comment of how horrible my scars looked but I thought they added character. I showered quickly and went to bed.

Vegeta and I stopped training early the next day, at about 10AM, and he ran directly into his gravity room.

"Well you're in early today." Bulma said as I came into the kitchen. She prepared a bowl of rice and stir fry for me as I sat down at the table.

"Vegeta ran off the his gravity room early today. I hate training in there with him because he practically kills himself for hours in there. That's not the way I like to train." I ate the bowl of rice quickly. "Thank you."

"I have something for you." she said reaching into her pocket and pulled out a wrist watch. "I've programmed this tracking device to take you to Goku's house and then back home again." I put it on.

"It's perfect. Thank you."

"You're welcome. Now run along, you've got a lot of training to do." she said, waving me good bye. The tracking device worked perfectly and got me there in almost no time at all. I touched down in front of Kakarrot's and heard laughing inside as I knocked on the door. Kakarrot's wife, Chi Chi, answered the door and led me into the kitchen.

"Corbin! You made it!" Goku exclaimed.

"Hi Corbin!" Gohan said. Piccolo nodded his head.

"Corbin please sit down and have some lunch." Chi Chi said, pulling a chair out for me.

"Thank you, Miss Chi Chi." I said, sitting down in the chair and eating the teriyaki she put in front of me.

"Do you think you're up for the challenge today, Corbin? We all want to see what you're made of." Goku said after we finished eating.

"We'll see." I answered. The four of us flew to a secluded spot about a mile away from the house to spar. Gohan and I went first and within the hour he was down. Don't get me wrong, the little tiger put up one hell of a fight but I had years more experience. I took a few minutes to rest and then prepared for my next challenge. The fight with Piccolo was going to be tough but I was ready for it. At the start, I knew I was going to be faster but not stronger. My strategy was to wear him down and then finish him off. In the beginning, I proved right, but as the fight wore on I realized it was going to take a lot more to wear down the Namek. As I dodge all of his kicks, punches, and ki blasts, he started to get angry. He grabbed a hold of me, in his anger, and blasted me in the chest, sending me flying. I flipped to land on my feet and found that he had singed my shirt and given me a large burn above my navel. My shirt burned off in pieces and left me standing in my black sports bra and lime green jogging shorts. As I walked toward Piccolo, my shoes, which Bulma had called wrestling shoes, crunched in the gravel of broken rocks and little pieces poked my foot through the soft soles. I took my time getting to him trying to gather my energy and when I got close enough, I flew at him and began my offence. Blood flew out of his mouth as I landed a hit to his stomach. I took to long rejoicing in the victory and he hit me, sending me flying again. We continued the exchange of one good hit for another for another hour and by the time we had finished in a stalemate, Chi Chi was calling us in for dinner. As we landed on the ground, I noticed Gohan and Kakarrot had started there own sparring and it was starting to get dark.

"We'll finish this tomorrow then." I said to Piccolo, extending my hand.

"Definitely." he replied, taking it. We shook hands and flew back to the house. After dinner, I flew back to Capsule Corp. and at 11 o'clock crawled into bed. I awoke the next morning to the feel of the sun on my face. I jumped up, confused by what was going on. It was eight o'clock, why hadn't Vegeta woken me up by now? I looked out my bedroom window and saw shadows playing in the windows of the gravity room. Was I so tired that I didn't wake up when he called me? I dressed quickly and ran to the gravity room. The simulation ended as I opened the large steel doors and he came to stand in front of me.

"What?" he said gruffly.

"You didn't wake me up. Why?"

"You are far to weak to continue to be my training partner and besides I don't need one." His words stung me as he said them very coldly.

"But… you're suppose to help me get stronger. You're the one who made me this strong and now you're telling me I'm no longer strong enough to train with you? Why?" Tears stung my eyes but I blinked them back.

"I don't have time to explain to someone like you. Go play with dolls or something." The door slammed shut in my face. I almost made it back to my room, but as I snuck through the kitchen Bulma popped up out of nowhere.

"Good morning! Are you hungry? I made breakfast." I collapsed to the floor crying my eyes out. "Corbin? What is it? What's wrong?"

"Vegeta won't let me train with him anymore." I answered as my tears subsided. "He says I'm too weak and he doesn't need me." She wrapped her arms around me and held me close to her.

"Well, I'm just going to march out there and…"

"Bulma, please don't. He already thinks I'm a weakling. I don't want to give him more reason to think that. Please don't." She hugged me tighter and ran her fingers through my hair to calm me.

"Are you sure? Cause I'll go take his gravity room away if you want me to."

"I'm sure. I'll be fine. I'm always fine." I wiped the tears off my face. "I'm gonna go take a shower."

"Ok, hun. If you need anything I'll be in the lab."

"Thank you." I said leaving the room. I showered and changed, then went to the lab to say bye to Bulma.

"Damn it! You piece of shit!" I heard Bulma yelling as I drew closer to the lab. Bulma was covered in grease and sweat and she was throwing tools around as I entered.

"What's wrong?"

"Well, I can't get the damn thing to work properly." I walked around the machine looking closely at it.

"This is a training simulator for Vegeta?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm trying to make them more durable so he'll stop breaking them." I nodded my head.

"Well, your capacitor isn't wired correctly." I leaned in close to it and fixed the wires. "There, try it now." She pressed a button on the remote and it started up.

"Holy shit, where did you learn to do that?"

"I started apprenticing under a scientist after Vegeta left. I learned a lot from him."

"Well, I have an apprenticeship open at the moment. Are you interested?"

"Really?! I'd love to! I could work with you in the morning and train with Kakarrot in the afternoon. That's perfect. Thank you, Bulma." I said, hugging her. Everyone I had met on this planet so far had been so inviting and friendly. It amazed me how much I liked it here. I was given a home, food, clothing, and anything I could have wanted, all within hours of leaving Frieza. The only thing that really bothered me was the fact that Vegeta had grown so cold to me. In years past, we were inseparable. He was my second father, my best friend, and now he had thrown me away. Had I done something to upset him? He wouldn't tell me even if I did. Hell, he wouldn't even give me the time of day now. When he slammed that door in my face, my goal became getting stronger so he would accept me again. As I was saying bye to Bulma, the floor began to shake. Fearing an earthquake, I threw myself on top of Bulma, using my body as a shield to protect her. Small chunks of ceiling and shelves fell on me and within seconds it was over. I cautiously pushed the shelves off of me and pulled Bulma to her feet, making sure she wasn't hurt. We looked around, assessing the damage, as the smell of burning oil filled my nostrils.

"Vegeta." I said, and ran from the lab to the gravity room. The gravity room was a pile of rubble. Bulma ran up behind me with a fire extinguisher and put the flames from the generators out as I sifted through to find Vegeta. I lifted a large piece of concrete up and found a bloody hand under it. Bulma screamed his name and the hand came to life, pushing rumble away. A few seconds later, Vegeta was standing in front of us, bleeding badly and wobbly. He took a step forward and his legs gave out. Bulma ran to him, catching him, just in time.

"I don't need your help woman." he said, pushing her away from him. As he did, he fell flat on his face. I picked him up, roughly, and slung him over my shoulder.

"We'll take him up to his room and patch him up." Bulma said, leading the way. He flopped down on to the bed as I shrugged him off while Bulma brought peroxide and gauze. I helped clean him up quickly and then left for Kakarrot's house. Vegeta was in recovery for three days and Bulma sat by his side the entire time. Bulma's mother, thankfully, stopped having tea parties by herself and took up the cooking and cleaning. I continued training and within days I had finally beat Piccolo. I trained with them and worked with Bulma for the next two years. At the end of the two year mark I had beat Kakarrot in his normal form and decided to challenge Vegeta. I had come home early that night from Kakarrot's house, still at full strength from just watching techniques today. The sun was still shinning and I spotted Vegeta walking inside for dinner as I landed. The three of us ate dinner in silence and as soon as he was done he ran back outside.

"I challenge you, Prince Vegeta." I said as I caught up to him.

"Go away, pathetic girl." he said laughing.

"What, are you scared this pathetic girl might just kick your ass?" I asked, baiting him. He stopped dead in his tracks and turned to me.

"You're going to regret that." He took off to the clearing in the woods where we used to train. It had a small stream running through it. It was stunning in the dark, the moon reflecting off the water. We sparred for hours and in the end I was broken, bleeding, and bruised. I touched down on the ground and collapsed to my knees. As he looked down at me with his deadly glare, a ki ball formed in his hand. Final flash. He was going to kill me. I had seen that look in his eyes before and knew I had to get out of the way. My mind screamed at me to get out of the way but my body screamed that I was too hurt. My left arm was broken and my collarbone was a gleam of white and red sticking out of my skin. As I looked up at my death, I decided I wasn't going out like this. My mind and my body fought over which would win and as he let the ball go, I screamed. White hot pain flared though me and I opened my eyes. My vision was clearer than it had ever been and I looked up at Vegeta. The ki ball was gone and I could see that he was staring at me, wide eyed. I lifted my right hand and saw a yellow glow coming off my skin. The pain left in stages and I stood. My arm was still broken but I felt reenergized. I walked to the stream and looked at my reflection. The moon gave off just enough light for me to see that my black hair was gone, replaced by yellow spikes pointing straight up and my eyes were green. I looked up at where Vegeta had been, but he was gone. I flew back to the compound and called for Bulma on the intercom. My strength left me again and I collapsed to the floor.

The sun glared in on me bright, and hot as I came to. My eyes adjusted to the light in stages and eventually focused on Bulma sitting in a chair beside my bed, reading a book. My torso and my left arm were in a cast and my body screamed fire as I tried to get up.

"Welcome back." Bulma said, putting her book down.

"How long have I been gone?" I asked, my voice a faint raspy whisper.

"A week. I was scared I'd lost you." She pushed my spiky bangs out of my eyes. I tried to think of the last thing I remembered. I fought with Vegeta, he tried to kill me, and I turned into a super Saiyan. Did I make it back to the house by myself?

"I found you in the foyer, front door wide open, in a pool of blood the next morning." she said, as if she had read my mind. "Your body is healing at an incredibly rapid rate. That's why it hurts so bad. I think you should be out of that cast in a few days."

"Where's Vegeta?"

"He's gone, Corbin. He left right after we knew you weren't going to die."

"Where did he go?"

"I don't know. Into space somewhere." She started sobbing with her head down on the desk. I tried to move closer to her to console her.

"What is it, Bulma?" I said wrapping my good arm around her.

"Corbin, I'm pregnant." she sobbed.

"That's wonderful news! Who's the…" And then it hit me. Vegeta was the father. That's why she was so upset. "Does he know?"

"I just found out yesterday and he's too far away to get a signal out to him." she cried harder now.

"It's ok, Bulma, he'll be back."

I waited for night fall before I left, sneaking out my window. I flew to the clearing. I needed to clear my head. My thoughts were a thunderstorm and I couldn't sleep. I sat on a rock close to the stream and looked at my reflection. Within seconds of the thought occurring, I was a super Saiyan and I felt my body healing more rapidly. This was all my fault. Vegeta was gone because of me and now he wouldn't be around to see his first child born. I started to cry as I thought of how much pain I was causing Bulma and she didn't even know it. I was a coward because I couldn't tell her. I was scared to see that look of hate in her eyes as she realized this was all my fault. The sun was peaking through the trees as I finally fell asleep by the stream.

The phone rang at the Son residence late that night.

"Hello." Chi Chi said, picking up the phone. "Bulma calm down." Three sets of ears perked up. "He's right here, hold on." She covered the mouth piece of the phone. "It's for you, Goku." He got up from the couch and took the phone.

"Hi Bulma!"

"Oh Goku." Bulma said, sobbing into the phone. "It's Corbin. She disappeared three days ago and we can't find her. I've sent out five search parties and they've turn up nothing. Can you find her? Please?"

"Hold on." He took the phone away from his ear and concentrated on her power signature. "I found her. I'll bring her home." Goku hung the phone up and turn to his wife. "I have to go. I'll be back as soon as I can." He kissed her cheek and used his instant transmission technique to transport to Corbin.

My hands were slick with it. My clothing stuck to my skin because of it. I looked down with an animalistic pleasure at the deer I had just killed and gutted. The sharpened stone that I was using as a knife bit into the flesh of the deer's leg as I started to skin it. I felt his energy before he appeared and I dropped into a defensive stance. No one was taking my kill. He appeared with his back to me and turned, looking around.

"Kakarrot." My voice was a low growl from not having spoken in three days.

"Ah, Corbin!" he said, with his genuine smile. "Bulma's worried sick about you."

"I'm not going back there. I can't." I went back to skinning my deer. He came up beside me and sat down.

"Why not?"

"I can't stand the caring look in her eyes and her unconditional love for me. I'm the reason why Vegeta's gone and I can't tell her. I'm too much of a coward."

"Well, what did you do to make Vegeta leave?" he asked.

"He was trying to kill me and I turned into a super Saiyan. He beat me up pretty badly. He stayed just long enough for the doctor to look me over and tell him that I wasn't going to die. He's off somewhere in space now and doesn't even know that Bulma is pregnant with his first child." I had skinned the deer completely and was starting to cut the meat from the bones.

"You know this isn't your fault right? He would've left anyway when Bulma gave him the news. The clock is ticking away and he still isn't a super Saiyan yet. The word baby probably would've sent him running." We laughed at the joke.

"You really don't think this is my fault?" I asked, tentatively.

"Not in the slightest." He wrapped his muscled arm around me and lightly bumped our heads together. I finished cutting up the deer. "You ready to go back now, kiddo?"

"You know I'm not really a kid anymore. I'm seventeen now." I jumped into the stream to wash the blood off and I used the pieces of cast I had torn off yesterday to bundle up the deer meat. My arm was still a bit tender but I could use it again. We flew back to capsule corp. together.

"You take care of yourself, Corbin. Oh, and by the way, don't forget to come by tomorrow. Can't wait for the challenge of fighting a super Saiyan." His outline blinked a few times and he was gone. I packaged the meat quickly and put it all in the freezer. As I walked through the living room to go to bed, I spotted Bulma asleep on the couch. Her face was red and blotchy and she had tissues wadded up in her limp hand. I carefully carried her to bed and tucked her in before going to my own. As the months flew past, Bulma got bigger and bigger and eventually had to stop working in the lab. I stopped training to take over for her and with two months to go on the clock, Bulma had a beautiful baby boy. She named him Trunks. I looked down at him in the basinet and wonder if this blue eyed, lavender haired baby was really a Saiyan. Trunks quickly showed me who was boss when he grabbed my finger and almost broke it. We celebrated my eighteenth birthday the week after Trunks was born. Yamcha approached me at the party and instead of being a lecherous fiend, he apologized for his misconduct. As the days grew longer, time grew shorter. It was finally the day we would find out if our training was enough.


	4. Chapter 4

I looked down at my watch. Twelve hours until the androids would arrive. The clearing was bathed in moonlight, just like the night Vegeta and I fought. He still wasn't back and that worried me. I sat around for another half an hour, submersed in my thoughts. All of a sudden, a blast sounded from the direction of Capsule Corp. I jumped up and flew back to the compound. As the dust settled, Vegeta appeared out of the space pod. I bowed as he approached me.

"I assume I have made it back in time?" he asked.

"Yes, Prince Vegeta. The androids will appear in the morning. Much has happened in your absence. You should speak to Bulma." I spoke to him formally because I didn't know if he was still mad at me.

"Thank you, Corbin. I will do so." He began to walk past me.

"Have you achieved it, Prince Vegeta?" I asked, quietly. He scoffed.

"Of course, and stand up. You look pathetic down there." He disappeared into the house. With eleven hours on the clock, I slid into bed.

"WHAT?!" I heard Vegeta scream from Bulma's room as I drifted into a deep sleep.

I awoke the next morning as the sun was coming up. After showering, I got dressed in my lime green shorts, black sports bra, and black tank top. I slipped on a pair of socks, my wrestling shoes, and my mother's necklace. My fingertips graced my father's sword hanging on the wall and I said a quick prayer that all of us would make it through this as I walked to the kitchen. Bulma, Vegeta and I ate the large breakfast in silence.

"You will not tell Kakarrot and his friends that I am back." Vegeta said, quietly as I put my plate in the sink. I opened my mouth to as why, but shut it. I didn't want to piss him off again. I bowed and left.

The island grew closer as I flew towards it. I was really early, so I found a cliff and watched the city. It was bigger than I thought it would be, about one hundred thousand in population. My watch read 9:15 as I propped myself up on a rock and shut my eyes. After ten minutes had passed, I felt two more fighters arrive and I opened my eyes to see Yamcha and Tien touch down in front of me.

"Hi Corbin!" Yamcha and Tien said.

"Hello boys."

"Are you ready for the fight today?" Yamcha asked.

"We'll see." I answered, uninterested. They chatted as I closed my eyes again, listening to the city below. A few more minutes passed and then I heard a plane approach. It landed on the cliff next to me and Bulma stepped out with Trunks in her arms. "What are you doing here?" My voice hinged on freak out.

"I just wanted to stop by and wish everyone luck." She answered. Before I could tell her to go home, Gohan, Kakarrot, Piccolo, and Krillin arrived. Everyone was here except Vegeta, but I knew he was out there watching. I blocked out all the idle chitchat and began stretching.

"I bet Vegeta's your daddy. Isn't that right, Trunks?" I heard Kakarrot say. I stopped and looked up at the group. How did he know that? I had told him Vegeta was the father but I never mentioned Trunks' name. On top of that Kakarrot and his family hadn't been able to make it to my birthday party. I had barely seen Kakarrot in the last nine months. Gohan's face was full of confusion but Kakarrot's and Piccolo's held a kind of knowing gaze.

It hit me then. The purple haired Saiyan in the Capsule Corp. jacket, the boy from the future; he was Trunks. The baby I had held in my arms so many times was the man that had warned us about the androids. I must have made a noise, because Piccolo looked at me and glared. I shut my mouth and nodded. As I finished up my stretches, I glanced at my watch. 10:15, the damned androids should be here by now.

"Someone's coming." Piccolo said. A man with black shaggy hair, wearing a stripped orange tunic jumped out of the plane after it had landed.

"Yajorobi, you came to help?" Kakarrot asked him.

"No! I brought you some senzou beans from Korin." He sounded like he had a mouth full of cotton balls and I had trouble understanding what he was saying. After handing Kakarrot a brown pouch, he waved and said, "I'm out of here." He jumped back in his plane and took off.

"Guys, I don't think these androids are coming." Yamcha said, but as the words came out, the sky lit up with an explosion. Yajorobi's plane plunged into the ocean and left the outline of two figures in plain sight. They quickly descended into the city.

"Were those the androids?" I asked.

"I didn't sense any power." Kakarrot said.

"Maybe we can't!" Gohan deduced.

"If we can't sense their power, how are we going to find them?" Yamcha asked the fear plain in his voice.

"We'll just have to find them the old fashion way, with our eyes." Piccolo replied.

"Bulma, hold the senzou beans." Kakarrot said, throwing the pouch to her. "Gohan, go check on Yajorobi." Gohan nodded and flew off. The rest of us powered up and took off for the city below. We split up and took a different section to search.

I had been searching the downtown area for ten minutes when I heard and saw the explosion. I flew towards it and found a gas station completely engulfed in flames. I felt a power level drain in the orange haze and spotted three figures, one of them Yamcha. The rest of the fighters arrived as I dropped down to the street to see what was happening. There were two androids, an old one and a fat one. The old one with a trash can for a hat had a hold of Yamcha by the face and before we could do anything to help him, the old man put his hand through Yamcha's chest. Blood poured down Yamcha's body and made a puddle on the street below him. The old man threw Yamcha down and smiled at us.

My mind fogged over as I looked at the blood. I vaguely saw Krillin pick up Yamcha's limp body. The smell of blood wafted to my nostrils and caught in the back of my throat. It had been so long since I had killed something purely for pleasure. The last time had been right before Raditz, Nappa, and Vegeta had left me. I flashed back to the last planet we had exterminated. They had finally allowed me to have my own section and at thirteen I was eager to get out on my own. All of a sudden, I could hear the screams of the planets inhabitants as I blasted their building down and caught their houses on fire. I looked up from the blood and could see the fires and the people. My breath came in gasps. I didn't want this anymore. A hand came out of nowhere it seemed and touched my shoulder. I looked back and saw Piccolo. The look in his eyes told me he knew what I was feeling. As I came back to reality, I realized that the screams were real. Everything around us was engulfed in flames. People were screaming and dying.

Kakarrot took to the sky and I followed with everyone, not knowing what was going on. We flew for a while, heading north.

"This is far enough, Goku. We will fight here." The androids descended to a small island and the rest of us followed. I noticed, as we landed, that Kakarrot was panting heavily. Had we flown so far that he got winded? They started talking again about tracking devices and perfectly engineered androids. 'Just fucking kill them!' my mind screamed. Finally, Kakarrot and the fat android started fighting and from the start, I knew this wouldn't take long. After a bit, Kakarrot seemed to slow and his panting was heavier. Before I could say anything to Piccolo, Yamcha, Krillin, and Gohan showed up. Immediately, Gohan noticed the difference in his father.

"You're being paranoid." Tien replied.

"But they drain power, what if that's what he's doing to Dad?" The android fell to the ground creating a large crater and Kakarrot powered up for a Kamahamaha wave. After releasing it, the android raised his hands to the sky and absorbed it all.

"They absorb energy, Goku." Piccolo yelled.

"You're kidding." Kakarrot replied, in a breathy voice. The android launched himself from the crater floor and started attacking.

"Something must be sapping his strength." Piccolo said.

"It's that virus! It's attacking his heart right now!" Gohan exclaimed.

Kakarrot was on his knees, clutching his chest, when the android landed on him and grabbed his neck.

"Let's move in." Piccolo said and I was immediately at his side, ready to go into battle.

"Stay where you are." The old android moved to block our path. Piccolo kicked and missed and the old android shot an energy wave into his chest. I was in the androids face in a second but stopped, I felt Vegeta coming. Instead of risking more loss of life, I backed off and went to Piccolo. As I check for a pulse, he bolted up and I looked to the battle field. Vegeta had knocked the android off of Kakarrot and was standing there in his super Saiyan form.

"Vegeta! He distracted me." Piccolo said. With one swift kick, Vegeta knocked Kakarrot off the battle field and into Piccolo's hand. Yamcha ran forward to take him from Piccolo.

"I gotcha, big guy. I'm going to take him home to get the medicine." Yamcha said, hoisting Kakarrot onto his shoulder.

"You better take some too. We don't know if the virus is contagious." Piccolo said. Yamcha nodded and took off.

"Maybe I should get you out of here, Gohan. I mean, the boy from the future did say that you would be the only one that would survive. Maybe you and I should go with Yamcha and your dad." I heard Krillin say behind me.

"Can it, you sniveling coward. I will not be distracted by your fear. If you want to leave, then go." I said, looking back at him.

"You're being greedy, 19. You can have Vegeta but the rest are mine." The old android said to the fat one.

"I was watching your little match with Kakarrot. Tell me android, does a machine like yourself ever experience fear?" 19's face screwed together and he rushed Vegeta. In the blur of movement, 19 had somehow gotten a hold of Vegeta's wrists.

"Until I have all your energy, I'll never let you go." The android said in a high pitched voice.

"Never, huh? Never can be a very long time." Vegeta said and put both of his feet on the androids face. As he pushed his feet into the androids face he pulled with his arms. "That's the spirit, never say die!" With one more push, Vegeta tore both of the androids hands off. 19 looked down at his stumps in disbelief and, with a scream, took off running. Vegeta lifted his hand and incinerated the android with one blast.

"He sure took a lot of energy." Vegeta said looking at the old man. "I'm sure if you attacked me now it would be a quick victory for yourself." His golden hair vanished. "But then of course, I could be bluffing. Want to find out?" The android seemed to weigh his options but in the end, he took off for mountain range off to our left.

"Baldy, throw me a bean." Vegeta demanded. Krillin scrambled for the pouch at his waist and threw one to Vegeta. "Corbin come with me. The rest of you are no longer need. Go home." He said after eating the bean and took off after the android with me close at his side. After a few seconds, I felt the fighters take off after us. 'Good, we'll need all the eyes we have to find this asshole.' I thought to myself. We searched the mountain range for a bit before Vegeta grew impatient.

"Fuck this! I'll flush him out." With that said, he released an energy blast into the mountains. Before any of us knew what happened, the old man appeared and absorbed it all through his hands. He was gone again in a flash. As we continued our search, we spread out further, looking for the bastard.

Suddenly, I felt hands on my mouth and legs wrap around my waist. I tried to twist and turn in his grasp, but I couldn't brake free. As each second drew past, I grew weaker and weaker. I was weightless and floating when strong arms caught me. I cracked my eyes open with effort and saw ice blue eyes full of concern in front of me. 'I've died and gone to otherworld.' I thought with a smile. But then I heard yelling. 'Do people yell in otherworld?'

"Trunks is back." I heard. The voice was Piccolo's. 'But Piccolo's not dead.' Suddenly, I pulled a huge breathe of air into my lungs. My hands flew out for anything they could grab onto. I found a small hand with my left and what felt like a hard, muscled shoulder with my right.

"She's alive. Give me a bean." I didn't recognize the voice. Something small was pushed into my mouth.

"Eat it Corbin, you'll feel better." I did what the voice told me and swallowed the bean. The pain in my lungs and head slowly abated. I opened my eyes and found myself in the arms of Trunks, the boy from the future. My one hand was on his shoulder while my other hand was gripped in Gohan's.

"Thank you." I mumbled, looking into his icy eyes. He opened his mouth and shut it, looking very uncomfortable. Gohan pulled me to my feet and I looked around wondering what I had missed. The whole gang was standing around me except Vegeta. He had the android corner and I walked over to them.

"He's mine, Vegeta." I said.

"Wait, that's not one of the androids. I've never seen him before." Trunks said, walking towards us.

"What? That's nonsense." Before any more was said, we heard a plane approaching. Bulma's plane rounded the side of a mountain and came down into the ravine we were in.

"You will all be sorry when I unleash androids 17 and 18." The old man said and released an energy blast into the ravine. I reached Bulma's plane just in time to catch the baby. As the dust and debris settled, I looked up to find those blue eyes looking at me. He had Bulma in his arms.

"That fucking android has vanished again." Vegeta screamed. Trunks set Bulma down and flew up to Vegeta.

"Why didn't you help them? They could've died."

"I have more important things to worry about than that foolish woman and her blasted offspring, boy."

"Guys," Bulma voice rang clear through the canyon as I handed her the baby. "I think that android was Dr. Gero. I remember see his face in one of my dad's science magazines."

"You told us a pack of lies." Vegeta screamed in the boys face.

"I can't believe the timelines have shifted this much. It was a risk I had to take when I came back to warn you." He looked around the group. "Wait, where's Goku?"

"He came down with that virus and Yamcha took him home to get the medication. I thought you knew that." Krillin answered.

"Listen, the android mentioned two more. Perhaps these are the androids you were talking about. I think you better give us a description of these two." Piccolo said to Trunks.

"Well, they aren't clumsy like the two androids you've seen. They're sleek and quick. One of them is designed to be a beautiful young girl and the other, a young boy with long dark hair. The thing that haunts me the most is their eyes. They have the same cold, lifeless eyes." Vegeta walked over to Bulma, but as he drew close, the baby started screaming.

"Oh, don't worry," she said, moving the baby to face away from Vegeta. "I won't let his ugly face scare you."

"Bulma, will you forget about the child for one minute. Where is Dr. Gero's lab?"

"Umm… I think the magazine said it was just outside North City, hidden inside a cave." She answered.

"If we hurry we can beat him there. He has to be on foot since no one saw him fly away." Piccolo said.

"Gohan, take them home and then go to your father. Report back once you know his status." I said. I looked at Vegeta and we both took to the sky but the boy blocked our path.

"You can't beat these things on your own. We need to wait for Goku."

"I don't need to wait for anything, let alone that fucking clown. Now get out of my way!" Vegeta yelled and blasted past the boy.

"You know he's your son, right?" I asked after we were away from everyone.

"Of course I know. I'm not a complete idiot." I felt the boy approaching.

"You're a quick little bastard, aren't you? Let's see if you can keep up now." Vegeta put on an extra burst of speed and took off. I looked at the boy, smirking in a very Vegeta-like way and transformed into a super Saiyan. I saw his eyes widen and then I was gone, catching up to Vegeta.

*******

'She's a super Saiyan?!' he thought to himself. 'And on top of that, she's supposed to be dead. The timelines really have shifted a lot. Maybe with the three of us being super Saiyans we don't need to wait for Goku. Maybe we can do this without him.' He caught up to her and Vegeta quickly. 'I wonder why she didn't die.'


	5. Chapter 5

I figured since you guys waited so long for chapter 4, i'd give you 5 right away. this is the end of the android saga and the next chapter will be the imperfect cell. remember, i don't own it. now please enjoy. r and r!

The mountainous city of North City was cold, extremely cold. The mountains surrounded the city and seemed to extend out for a lifetime. As the three of us, Vegeta, Trunks, and myself, started our search, I felt the rest of the gang show up. Minutes drew past, then an hour. I was almost shivering out of my skin, trying desperately to conceal it, when Trunks showed up next to me. He took his jacket off and handed it to me.

"Here, put this on. You're trying to keep yourself warm so hard that your energy signal is pulsing. You don't want to give out a false signal." I took the jacket from him and put it on.

"Thank you." As I floated next to him, I noticed that we were almost the same height. I was only about a half inch shorter. It made me smile. I'd been taller than Vegeta for a few years now but I would never mention that to him. He'd kill me for that.

The blowing winds that had cut me like paper were now dulled thanks to the jacket and we floated face to face for a while, staring dumbly at each other. Finally, we felt a real pulse. It was Krillin and we rushed to his location. Tien, Piccolo, Krillin, and Vegeta were already there when we arrived. Krillin seemed to be beaten up pretty badly and Vegeta eyed me suspiciously, probably wondering where we had been.

"Let's move in." he said, gruffly.

"Wait, guys," I heard Krillin say from behind us. We stopped and turned. "Gero beat me here." I sighed and continued to the opened in the cliff face. As we landed on the ledge, I heard yelling inside.

"Out of my way." Vegeta said and without hesitation, blasted the door open. As the dust settled, I heard Vegeta laugh. "This is what you were worried about? A beautiful girl and a boy with a neckerchief. Are these even the right androids?"

"That's them." Trunks confirmed. The blonde and black haired androids were standing next to a white chamber on the floor.

"Android 16, I thought you weren't going to finish him." The blonde haired girl asked the old man.

"I haven't finished him yet. I order you to stay away from there. Do not open that chamber." The old man yelled.

"Or you'll do what exactly?" the black haired boy asked.

"I will make another remote and shut the two of you off again! Now get away from there!" The black haired boy moved to the old man and shoved his hand through the doctor's chest. He jumped in the air and kicked the old man's head off. It rolled across the lab and came to a stop at the door. The boy jumped in a graceful arc and landed with his foot on the doctor's head, crushing it. He looked at us and then walked back to the girl.

"We can't let them open that stasis chamber. If they do it will be the end of us all." Trunks said. The girl looked at Trunks with a sly smirk and bent down to press the button. "NO!!!" Trunks screamed and let loose a blast into the lab. I was blown back by the fire ball that came out of the lab and, after I had gotten far enough away, I looked down to find first and second degree burns on my legs. 'Damn, these fucking shorts. What a bright idea, wear nothing on your legs and leave them exposed to things like fire!' I yelled at myself.

"Brilliant idea, boy." The debris cleared and the two androids were on a cliff below with the stasis chamber.

"But how did they survive that? That was my most intense blast."

"Great, you've just shown them how weak you are. Never send a boy to do a man's job."

The blonde haired android threw the chamber to the ground and opened it. The android that appeared was tall, over six and a half feet, with a red mohawk. They took to the sky and flew off.

"But wait, they're not heading to South City. Where are they going?" Tien asked.

"That's the direction of Goku's house." Krillin said. As Vegeta took off, Trunks tried to block him from leaving again.

"Listen, we need to wait for Goku."

"I wait for no one." Vegeta said and punched Trunks in the stomach. He doubled over in pain and Vegeta left.

"Are you ok?" I asked.

"I'm fine." He said, straightening himself. Vegeta's energy signal had stopped but as we continued to follow it, he started moving again. The erratic movements suggested he was chasing something, maybe one of the androids, and then he stopped again. We reached the highway and found the three androids below us; Vegeta was no where in sight.

"Are you ok in there, Vegeta?" Trunks yelled out as we landed on the highway.

"Of course I'm ok, why wouldn't I be?" He stepped out of the cave his body had made and came face to face with the young girl.

"Another android approaching at twelve o'clock." Tien said. I turned to see the boy walking towards us.

"I don't have a problem with Vegeta fighting 18 alone, but if anyone else joins the fight I will be forced to step in." the boy said.

"You don't have to worry about them jumping in, they're cowards. They wouldn't lift a finger to help me even if I needed it, which I don't." Vegeta said.

"Well, then, please continued."

Vegeta charged the girl, knocking her into the air, and brought his combined fist down between her shoulder blades. She crashed into a cliff face and pulled herself up. Vegeta charged again, throwing kicks and punches.

"He's doing it. He's actually doing it." Trunks said from beside me.

"No, he's done for." Piccolo said from my other side. "The android's making him burn up all of his energy and then she's going to strike. He can't win." There was a scream from below. Piccolo was right; the android was on the attack now. With one swift kick, the android dislocated Vegeta's shoulder with a sound pop. He screamed again, staggering away from the android. Suddenly, Trunks was gone from my side. As he reached the girl, he drew his sword and tried to strike her. A high pitch noise resonated through the canyon and I saw Trunks' sword crack and shatter from hitting the android's arm. With a punch to the jaw, Trunks fell and didn't get up. Tien was next to jump in and was scooped up into a choke hold by the boy. Piccolo rushed the girl but was also knocked out. I looked at Krillin and I could literally taste his fear. I came in from behind and kicked the boy in the head. Tien, now release from the choke hold, fell to the ground with a thud. I changed into a super Saiyan and attacked the boy. Vegeta and Trunks were up again, but they were quickly knocked down by the girl. Vegeta screamed and I wheeled around to see if he was okay. The boy took advantage and kneed me in the stomach, knocking the wind from me. Before I knew it, I was on the ground and I couldn't pull myself up. Blood stung my eyes and I changed back to normal, as the androids landed by me.

"Even their strongest warriors fall at our feet." The boy was laughing.

"Look, Vegeta's hair is black. He's not a really blonde, what a faker." The girl said.

"Same goes for these two and they're not glowing anymore. I don't have any files on them."

"Me neither. Oh well, let's go." They both left and I cracked my eyes open to see where they'd gone. I found them on the highway talking to Krillin and I waited for them to leave before getting up. Everyone else was getting up and Krillin had finally decided to come down to help. As I staggered to Vegeta, Krillin went to Tien and gave him a senzou bean. I could see that Vegeta's left shoulder was dislocated through the spandex and I grabbed his arm, jerking it to move it back into the socket. He screamed in pain but didn't move. Krillin, finally, made his way over to Vegeta. I grabbed him by the front of his tunic, bringing him close to me.

"You could plainly see that he was injured the most and yet you heal him last. I don't care that you stayed on the highway but to avoid someone who's gravely injured, our best fighter until Kakarrot gets back mind you, is just plain cowardly. I would've expected this out of Yamcha, but never you Krillin. Give me the bean and get away." He gave me two beans and crashed to the ground as I threw him away from me. I shoved the beans in Vegeta's mouth and he swallowed them. I could feel Krillin still standing next to me. "What?!" He extended his hand toward me.

"There's one left for you. You're hurt really bad, too."

"And you'll be even worse if you don't get away from me now." I limped, stubbornly, over to the group to find out what the next plan was.

"This is all Vegeta's fault."

"Shut up, Tien. This is no ones fault. We all underestimated the androids." Vegeta charged up and took off. Trunks also charged up.

"Trunks stop. Let him go. He just needs to blow off some steam. He'll be fine." Piccolo said.

"These androids are stronger than the ones from my time. I don't understand how though." Trunks said.

"Well we're not going to worry about that now. The next plan is to get Goku to safety. If Krillin is right, then the androids will be heading there next. You four go; I have something I have to do." Piccolo said.

"What do you have to do Piccolo?" Krillin asked.

"It's none of your business and don't try to follow me." Piccolo growled and released an energy wave, before taking off. I barely moved out of the way in time but I fell to my knees, unable to get back up. Krillin walked over to me and handed me the bean. I glared daggers at him but took it. I didn't want to slow everyone down because I could fly.

"Let's go." I said after the bean kicked in and the four of us took off.

"Trunks, how long do you think the medication will take to heal Goku?" Krillin asked.

"In Goku's case, I'd say about ten days." After a bit, Tien veered off the go to Master Roshi's house.

Kakarrot's house finally appeared on the horizon and the three of us put on an extra burst of speed to get there quicker. Krillin knocked on the door.

"Gohan?!" Chi Chi yelled as she came out of the house, smacking Krillin with the door in her haste.

"Chi Chi, we have to move Kakarrot now. He's in grave danger here." I said.

"You mean you guys didn't defeat the androids?" Yamcha asked. Krillin shook his head.

"They're on their way here now. That's why we have to move Goku."

We moved quickly. Trunks and I carried the bed out while Yamcha and Krillin carried Goku. As we loaded the last bag of supplies into the plane, Chi Chi let out a shriek.

"Gohan's here." After he landed, Chi Chi scooped him up into her arms.

"What's going on, Mom?"

"We have to move your father. The androids are on the way." She explained.

"Come on, everyone on the plane." I said and we were off. Yamcha took the pilot seat while the rest of us sat in the back.

"I have an idea." Trunks said, after we were in the air. "I could take the time machine to the past and destroy the androids before they wake up. It'll be easy since I know where the lab is now."

"Yeah, but that won't change anything here, will it? Did your time change after you came back?"

"I don't know. I didn't go back after I was here three years ago. I just came straight here from that time. But you're right, it won't change anything." He sighed.

"Then why did you come back to warn us if it wouldn't change anything in your time?" Krillin asked. Trunks stood and went to the window.

"My mother asked me to. She knew it wouldn't change our time but she knew it would make yours better. I also came back to see if I could find a weakness." Chi Chi screamed all of a sudden and started rooting through bags.

"There's no time to waste." She pulled a stack of books out of the bag and put them on Gohan's lap. "It's time to study, young man."

"But Mom…"

"Don't but Mom me. We've already lost enough time. You study now." Gohan pulled a book out and started reading.

"Krillin, why don't you call Bulma and tell her what's going on?" Yamcha said.

"Why don't you do it?"

"I'm piloting the plane. Come on, man." Krillin sighed and moved to sit in the copilot chair.

"No offense, man," Krillin said to Trunks. "but sometimes your mom's hard to deal with."

"I know what you mean." Trunks said, laughing. Krillin called Capsule Corp. and after a minute, Bulma came over the intercom.

"Krillin, what's going on? I've been trying to call Goku's house and no one's picking up."

"We're moving Goku to Master Roshi's house."

"Oh ok. Hey, is my son with you, I mean Trunks? You know, the one from the future?"

"Yeah he's here."

"Well put him on the line. I need to talk to him."

"Go ahead, Bulma. He can hear you."

"Hey Trunks, a guy called in today because he found a vehicle and he does know how to drive it. He said he wants to keep it but his description didn't match any of our vehicles. So, he faxed me a picture and, you're not going to believe this, it's the time machine."

"What? That's not possible. I have the time machine right here." He lifted his hand but then remembered that I had his jacket on. I took it off and handed it back to him. He took a case out of the pocket. "It's in its capsule right here."

"Well, how many did you make in the future?" Bulma asked.

"We only barely managed to make one."

"I'm pretty sure this is your time machine. I'm going to send the picture through the fax. Now Trunks, I want you to take a good look at it and tell me what you think." Within a matter of seconds, a picture was printing from the machine.

"This is my time machine, all right, but what does this mean?"


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: I've really been on a roll with this story over the past week. i want to thank everyone that's read so far. oh and i just wanted to clear something up from the last chapter. i place Trunks at about 5'9, making Corbin 5'8 1/2 ish. i don't own it, i don't make money off this. enjoy!!

Trunks was staring at the picture of the moss cover time machine.

"I'm sure this is the same one. Where is it at?" he asked Bulma.

"I'm not sure, but from the looks of it it's somewhere in the West 1050 Area." Bulma answered. "Why, are you thinking about going there?"

"Definitely."

"Great, I'll meet you there." The line went dead.

"Trunks, can I go?" Gohan asked.

"I don't think so! You have too much school work to do." Chi Chi answered for Trunks. Gohan looked sad and sank back into his books.

"I'll go with you. After all, two beautiful geniuses are better than one." I said with my Vegeta-like smirk. Yamcha opened the hatch and Trunks and I took off. He was silent for a long time.

"So," I said. He looked startled for a moment, as if he'd been in deep thought. "what do you say we make this interesting?" I looked at his profile, my mind racing with the questions I had had when Trunks had been born. Was this boy really a Saiyan? Because he sure as hell didn't look like it. 'He's cute but, purple hair and blue eyes weren't common in Saiyan society.' I thought.

"How so?" he asked. I programmed my GPS locator watch to the West 1050 Area.

"First one to West 1050 wins. What do you say?" He smiled.

"I say you're on." He put on a burst of speed and I almost laughed at him, keeping pace.

"If that's the best you can do, I'll see you there in a few days." I felt my skin tingle with the change and, as I blasted forth, everything became crystal clear. I felt him come up beside me, pacing me, and I pushed myself further. As we came up on the West 1050, I pushed myself to the max and I inched past him as my watched beep. We were both breathing hard as we came to a stop and we changed back to normal.

"I win."

"So, what do you win? We didn't set any terms." I thought about it for a minute.

"A spar. I want to see how strong you are. What do you say?"

"Sounds like a plan. When we get back to Roshi's I'm going to kick your ass." He said and it made me laugh.

"We'll see. Now lets get to work." We descended to search the area and within half an hour, I found it.

"Trunks, I found it." The machine was colossal and the moss was almost completely covering it. For the third time that day, I heard Bulma's plane approach. "I'm going to flag her down." I flew up to meet her and guided her down to land beside the time machine. Trunks had already taken his time machine out of the capsule and was examining the moss covered one. After Bulma examined her son from the future to make sure he was okay, she turned to the time machines.

"So, you're sure this is the same machine?"

"Yes, look at this." He brushed some moss of the front of the machine. It said 'hope'. "You wrote this right before I left." He said, pointing to the other machine. They both had hope written on them in the same spot. We floated to the pod of the machine and Trunks popped the hatch open. While he played with the controls I inspected the blast hole in the dome.

"It looks like this blast came from the inside. See how the glass melted out." Trunks pulled something up from the floor.

"What the hell are these?" he asked. I sat down on the edge of the pod and looked at the things he'd pulled up. They were two dome shaped objects, both of them a bumpy, purple with yellow trim.

"Hey, let me see." Bulma yelled from the ground. I jumped off the side of the pod with the domes in my hands and took them to Bulma. She looked at them for a bit and then said, "They look like some sort of shell. Like an egg shell."

"But if these were egg shells, the thing that was inside would be bigger than a human." I said to Bulma. I floated back up to the pod to get a closer look at the controls. There was a main screen with a lot of unlabeled buttons around it.

"The damn thing's almost out of power." He said pressing buttons. "It looks like it landed here three years ago. No, wait, four years ago. But that doesn't make sense. This thing was already here by the time I came back. Maybe, whatever came back in this, is the reason the timelines are off so much." Trunks and I landed back on the ground and encapsulated both machines. As I picked up the capsule, I saw something in the bushes and walked over to get a better look.

"Hey, guys, I think I see something." I pushed the brush aside and found, what looked to be, a brown husk. Bulma and Trunks appeared at my side as I got closer to it. The husk was huge, bigger than me, and looked like a giant cicada. I stuck my hand inside the thing after seeing something and came out with pink goop on my fingers. "It's fresh." I said, smearing the goop over my fingers, and showed Trunks. He touched it and rubbed it between his fingers.

"This thing is still around here, somewhere." He said, looking around. The bushes next to us rustled and Bulma ran away, screaming. We drew closer to the bushes and realized it was a squirrel. I wiped the nasty goo onto my tank top and we walked back to the plane. Bulma was sitting in the pilot seat of her plane with a terrified look on her face.

"So that thing is still out there huh? I'm… a… going to take the shell back with me. You two be safe." Her voice was shaky and, after the hatch had closed she was gone.

"Let's go to the island and make sure they got there safe." I suggested and we took to the air. Trunks was in deep thought for the whole trip and I didn't want to disturb him. We landed as the sunset and walked into the house. Yamcha, Krillin, and Gohan were in sleeping bags on the floor of the living room and Master Roshi was sitting on the couch watching TV. Trunks walked into the kitchen and I sat down next to Roshi.

"Do you mind?" I asked, pointing to the pack of cigarettes on the table.

"No, go ahead." He said, never taking his eyes from the smutty movie he was watching. I was glad to see Gohan was asleep; he shouldn't be watching something like this. I lit the cigarette and walk outside, sitting down in the sand. I was half way done with it when Trunks came out.

"I see you've picked up mom's dirty habit."

"I need something to do in my down time. It helps me calm down." I said as he sat down next to me. I finished the cigarette and flicked it into the ashtray by the front door. I sighed and lay back in the sand.

"You ready for that spar?"

"Not tonight, I'm exhausted and I think we're going to need all the rest we can get." He lay back in the sand next to me. "Trunks, tell me about your world."

"Well, the androids have pretty much destroyed every city on the planet. The survivors have to live in secret underground bunkers in order to stay alive." He paused. "They have to have some kind of weakness, a remote maybe."

"Well, if a remote can be made, Bulma and I will figure it out." I told him reassuringly. "And we have Kakarrot. We can't lose." The waves made lapping noises as they crashed onto the beach.

"Corbin, what was our planet like? You know, planet Vegeta." He asked me after a few minutes of silence.

"I don't really know. I was born twelve years after it was destroyed and by the time I was born there weren't many of us left, about twenty of us. When I was six my parents formed a resistance group and Frieza found out. He killed my parents and everyone else in the group, except me. Vegeta found me and took me in." I paused. "And to answer your questions, Nappa told me that our planet was beautiful. Kind of like the Papaya Islands, very lush and green. I wish I could've seen it." The TV turned off inside the house.

"Are you sleeping out here tonight?"

"Are you kidding me? You think I'm going to sleep in there with all those perverts? Hell, the first time I met Yamcha I broke his jaw because he touched me." We laughed.

"I can imagine. Mom's told me lots of stories about the guys."

"What about me? Did your mom ever tell you about me?"

"She said you were a genius." I could see he was hesitating.

"What is it?"

"Corbin, you're not supposed to be alive right now."

"Well, none of us are but you warned us." I said, slowly.

"No, I mean, you died before the androids came, like Goku."

"Really? How?"

"I don't remember, but you died right after Goku did." I was silent for a moment.

"Oh, well, I'm alive now." I was trying to remember if I had come close to death in the past three years and nothing came to mind. I rolled over on my side, resting my head on my hand, to look at him. "So, we have Kakarrot and me. We definitely can't lose." He came up on his side mirroring me.

"And me." I smirked.

"You have yet to show me how strong you are. I think you're giving yourself more credit than you're worth."

"Ouch, well, I'm really going to kick your ass now." We laughed. His blue eyes peered into mine as we lay on the beach laughing together. Our laughter stop and we were leaning together, our lips brushing.

"Are you two coming in to sleep or what?" Chi Chi was at the front door.

"We're going to sleep our here in case there's trouble." I answered coolly.

"Well, if that's the case, keep it down. I don't want you to wake up Goku." She said and closed the door. I could see a faint blush across Trunks' face in the moonlight.

"Um… sleep well." I said to him.

"Ah… yeah, you too."

My eyes opened as the sun peaked over the horizon. Trunks was sleeping soundly next to me and I got up, sneaking into the shower before anyone else woke up. Everyone was up when I came out and the smell of breakfast wafted to my nose. My stomach was growling loudly as I walked into the kitchen.

"Oh look, the shower hog's finally done." Chi Chi said as I walked in. Everyone laughed as I took my seat.

"Sorry but I was the first one up. You snooze, you lose." I said.

The phone rang as we finished eating and Master Roshi answered it.

"Hey, Bulma. All right calm down, I'm turning it on." He turned the TV to the news station.

"And now back the disaster in Ginger Town. It seems that the entire population, fifteen thousand residents, has disappeared. There are no signs of life anywhere but the clothing of the residents is everywhere. We will bring you more when our anchor gets to the town."

"That's really close to where we found the time capsule." Trunks commented.

"Maybe we should go check it out." I suggested.

"Yeah, let's go." We took off and flew as fast as we could toward Ginger Town. As we got closer, I started to feel the power signatures of all the fighters in Ginger Town.

"It seems like everyone's already beat us there." I said. I reached out further with my senses. "Wait, that's not right. I'm feeling double of everyone."

"It feels like a huge power level just arrived but I can't tell whose it is." Trunks said. I concentrated on it for a while.

"It's Piccolo but he's different. He's so much stronger. How can this be?"

We arrived half an hour later and the first thing I saw was a big green creature. It looked similar to the husk we found in the forest but it was upright instead of on all fours. We descended on the city.

"What the hell is this thing?" I asked.

"I'll tell you everything as soon as I destroy it." Piccolo responded. The creature saw Trunks and I arrive and took off for the sun.

"Solar Flare!" he screamed and all of a sudden I couldn't see anything. My sight came back in stages and I found that all of us were having the same problem.

"Piccolo, what the hell was that thing?" I asked.

"Wait until the others arrive and then I'll explain it to everyone." I looked up to see Vegeta and Tien arrive.

"Namek, what have done to become so powerful?" Vegeta asked as soon as he landed.

"He's fused with Kami." Tien answered.

"Enough of that, the creature's name is Cell. He's an android from the future and was created by Dr. Gero by fusing the cell's of the strongest warriors together. Gero put him in a bunker under his lab and in twenty four years the one in this time will be complete. He's here to absorb androids 17 and 18 to become the perfect being. I think it will be easier to track down Cell since the androids don't have power signatures."

"You said the present Cell is in a bunker under Gero's lab?" Trunks asked.

"Yes, that's right."

"Corbin and I will head there and destroy it. Maybe we'll find some of Gero's plans." Trunks said.

"As for me, I'm going to train. There's a level past super Saiyan and it will be mine." Vegeta took off and Tien and Piccolo left to find Cell.

"Do you mind if we swing by Capsule Corp really quick? I need to change if we're going to those mountains again." I asked Trunks.

"Yeah that fine." We arrived in no time and I threw on a pair of jeans. I grabbed my jacket on the way out. We were lucky not to run into anyone on the way in or out.

The wind was more bearable today with pants on and we quickly found what was left of the lab. Trunks threw some pop shots into the rubble and debris to clear it out of the way and we found the entrance. It was pitch black as we moved down the small tunnel and I tried to feel around to get my bearings. I felt the wall of the tunnel flare out into the main room and Trunks found a light switch, contracting my pupils painfully. The cavernous room stretched out before us. In the center, a large computer stretched floor to ceiling and a fluid filled chamber sat beside it. I walked over to a work station and found schematics on it.

"I found the plans for 17!" I hollered to Trunks.

"Come look at this. There's something in there." I stood next to him in front of the fluid filled chamber.

"That must be him." I tucked the plans into my jacket. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah." We raised our hands to the room and started blasting. The computer crashed to the floor in flaming pieces and the chamber cracked; its contents emptied into the room. The whole mountain started rumbling and Trunks grabbed my arm, pulling me down the tunnel to the entrance. Once top side, we blasted the entrance shut.

"Mission accomplished. I'm going to take these plans back to the lab, are you coming?"

"No, I'm going to train with my Father."

"Trunks, I don't mean to burst your bubble but Vegeta's not going to let you train with him. He's been my guardian for twelve years; I know he's a solitary creature."

"I know but I have to try."

"Well, more power to you. Good luck." I waved and took off for the lab.

I set the plans on Bulma's desk.

"I'm going to design the box for it, if you'll do the coding for it."

"Why do you get the easy job?" she asked, laughing. "Oh that's right; I'm the beautiful genius and the Queen of the Lab!"

"I'll let you be Queen of the Lab if you hurry up with those plans."

I had the casing done the next morning. I worked all through the night to get it done.

"It just needs to be tuned to the right frequency, once you find out what that is."

"You have the casing done already?"

"Yeah, I worked on it all night. Guess what?"

"What?" she asked.

"I'm Queen of the Lab." I grabbed a cigarette from her pack and lit it.

"I guess, but only until I get the plans done. Then I'm Queen again. What are you doing for the rest of the day?"

"I'm going to spar with Trunks."

"Well, you two be careful." I put the cigarette out and left.

I touched down soundlessly behind Trunks. Vegeta was standing out on the ledge of the cliff in front of us.

"Is this all you've been doing for the past two days?"

"He hasn't even moved to pee. Every time in go up to him, he tells me to fuck off."

"Hate to say I told you so but, I have something fun in mind. Are you ready for that spar?" I asked him.

"Anything's better than this. Let's go over there." He said, pointing to a small island next to the one we were on. Once on the other island, I began stretching and after a few minutes I was ready. I lunged first, punching him in the face, but he was gone. I locked onto his power level and found him above me. My leg caught him in the stomach as I twisted to meet him. He was gone again. 'Shit, he's fast.' I thought and an idea popped into my head. Keeping my eyes closed, I reached out for his signal again and my fist connected with his jaw. We fought like that for an hour before we made the change and I opened my eyes. I quickly found out that he was much stronger than me in his super Saiyan form and his fist came down, connecting with my jaw. Blood welled in my mouth and I spit it out, some trickling down my chin. I caught his fist as he charged to punch me and brought my knee up into his sternum. Then, drawing my right arm back, I gave him a strong upper cut to the jaw. He quickly regained his composure and charged at me again. This time he slid between my legs, coming up behind me, and gave me a roundhouse kick to the head. I slid a good ten feet to the left, my body feeling every rock and plant along the way. He came up beside me, kneeling to the ground.

"So, you ready to give up?" he asked. I was pissed now and I reacted in a blind fury, punching and kicking at him. He laughed at me and pinned me against his rock hard chest, my arms behind my back. I tried to kick him but I didn't have enough leverage. I stopped struggling and made my whole body calm, hoping he would lessen his grip. I looked into his eyes, only inches away from me, and I kissed him. His soft lips were hesitant at first but then he deepened the kiss, flicking his tongue out tentatively. My hands were at the back of his neck before I realized he had let me go and I flicked my tongue out to meet his. My concentration broke and I felt myself change back to normal. His power licked along my skin, making me moan into his mouth, and I pulled back to breath. That's when I felt it. Kakarrot was gone.

"Wait, something's wrong." He pulled back from me.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that." He mumbled.

"No, wait." There he was. He was moving at a slow pace and then suddenly, he was gone again. "It's Kakarrot, he's…" Before I could finish my sentence, Kakarrot appeared on the island beside us with Gohan in tow. I stepped away from Trunks.

"Hey guys!"

"Kakarrot, you're all better."

"Yep, one hundred percent, more or less. I came to talk to the three of you. Where's Vegeta?" Trunks pointed to the other island.

"He's been like that for two days now. Every time I get near him he tells me to fuck off." Trunks told him.

"Well, I'll talk to him." The four of us flew over to the island. They talked for a few minutes and then came back to the three of us. "We're heading up to the lookout. There's a room there that we can get a years worth of training in one day. I'm going to take Vegeta and Gohan up first and then I'll be back for you two." His outline blinked a few times and he was gone. Trunks and I stood in an awkward silence for a few seconds and then he pulled me to him.

"I'm not sure what this is but right now, I don't care." He said to me but before we could say anything else, Kakarrot was back. My heart fluttered and race the whole way there. Did he mean that he doesn't care if anyone found out? Or did he mean that he doesn't care about me? If he doesn't care if anyone finds out, does that mean he likes me? The questions rolled over and over in my head. I didn't know what to do, I'd never felt anything like this before. My thoughts clouded me so much that I didn't realize Trunks was standing in front of me.

"Hey," he said, pushing my spiky bands out of my eyes. "I'll see you in a year." I smiled.

"No, I'll see you in a day." His lips brushed mine, softly, and he was gone. The door slid shut behind him and Vegeta.

After dinner that night, I laid under the stars, feeling the world below me.

"Miss Corbin, there is a bed set up for you inside whenever you're ready." Mr. Popo said.

"Thank you, Mr. Popo, but I think I sleep out here tonight."

"Of course, I'll bring you a sleeping bag and pillow then." He said, kindly, and came back a few minutes later. I felt the guys asleep inside Kame House. Bulma was asleep in her bed with Baby Trunks next to her. I drifted off to sleep wondering what Trunks and Vegeta were up to inside the Time Chamber.

I awoke the next morning with the feeling that something wasn't right. Piccolo was awake below us at Kame House and he was agitated. I felt the others wake up and they ran out to the beach. I walked to the edge of the lookout and looked down. Somehow I could see them, as if I was watching TV and they were all on it. There were people standing in front of Piccolo but I couldn't see them clearly, I couldn't feel them. It's the androids, it has to be. I ran inside the palace to find Kakarrot. They were sitting in the dinning room, enjoying a large breakfast.

"Kakarrot, the androids have found Piccolo. They're at Kame House right now."

"I know, Corbin. Piccolo will handle it. Sit and have some breakfast." He seemed so calm as he said. Did he truly believe Piccolo could handle it? I ate quickly and then ran back out to see what was going on. Piccolo was alone now with the androids on an island close to Kame House and he was powering up. Was he planning on fighting the androids alone? Kakarrot appeared beside me.

"Do you really think he can take these androids by himself?" I asked.

"I hope so." We watched for another half an hour and then I felt something. A large power signature was heading towards Piccolo and, as I concentrated on it, I saw Cell moving rapidly to the battle.

"Kakarrot, look, Cell's moving in. He can't take all three androids and Cell." Kakarrot sighed.

"I know but we have to stay here. If we go down there, we'll be slaughtered and that won't help anyone." As the minutes drew on, I started pacing. Cell was getting closer and closer. Finally, I dove off the lookout. "Corbin, no, come back!" I pushed myself further than I ever had before to get to the battle field. I felt Tien get there just before I did. I took a moment to survey the battle field as I arrived. Cell was there and it looked like Piccolo and 17 had teamed up to beat him. I flew down to jump into the battle and suddenly Cell punched Piccolo, sending him flying back in my direction. Piccolo's back rammed into my chest and I tried to us my energy to slow our momentum. I powered up to super Saiyan but something was wrong. Instead of my energy pushing against the momentum to stop us, it was flowing down my arms and into Piccolo, where my hands touched him. My energy was draining into Piccolo and I didn't know how to stop it. I felt myself change back to normal and suddenly Piccolo pulled himself to a stop, breaking the contact between the two of us. I couldn't stop myself, I was too weak. My body continued until it exploded with pain. My vision ran in streamers and, suddenly, I was unconscious.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: hey everyone! i've finally gotten around to attempting to draw Corbin if you like to see it please go to ./197622 remember i don't own it (except Corbin) and please review. tell me what you think of the pic!

Someone was tugging on my arm but I couldn't see anything. I tried to put my hands to my face but I was pinned. There was a weight pressing down on my whole body. My arm was being pulled again and it dislodged me from my hole in the side of the mountain. I was flung over a strong shoulder and I screamed at the pain.

I woke the second time on the lookout after having a senzou bean shoved in my mouth. Piccolo and Tien were sitting next to me and I looked at them.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Cell got 17 after Piccolo fell. I tried to stop him but, I wasn't strong enough." Tien answered.

"No, I mean, Piccolo, what happened to me?" He seemed to think about it before answering.

"When Cell knocked me into you, somehow, your power was transferred into me. It gave me a strength and speed boost but it wasn't enough. Have you ever done anything like that before?"

"No, never." I answered.

"There were once Nameks that could do that. They could act as a kind of focus for another person. During battle they would transfer all their power to a more powerful Namek."

"Do you think this is something I could do with anyone?"

"With the Nameks, it was always more useful if you used it on your own race. Like if you did it to Goku, he would get more use out of your energy than I did." Piccolo said, looking at Kakarrot and then back to me. "This is a very useful technique. I think you should worry about developing this more than ascending to the next level." I nodded.

"Miss Corbin, I have prepared a bath for you, if you'd like." Mr. Popo said.

"Thank you, Mr. Popo." I got up and followed him into the palace. He escorted me into a large room with a large claw foot tub in the middle and closed the door after I had entered. I peeled my blood soaked clothes off and got into the hot water. As I finished bathing, I felt Trunks and Vegeta exit the Pendulum Room. I jumped out of the tub, grabbing my bra and underwear, and found a fluffy white robe folded neatly on a stool. The robe flared out behind me as I ran to them. My wet feet padded across the open courtyard and I finally spotted him amongst the group. He'd grown taller and he looked so much stronger. I was flooded with emotions and realized that I had missed him, even if it had only been a day. He turned to me just in time to catch me as I jumped into his arms. He picked me up a few inches off the floor and hugged me tightly.

"I missed you." He whispered in my ear. His voice had dropped a bit and had a gravelly sound to it.

"I missed you, too." I whispered against his lips and kissed him. We pulled away from each other and I noticed his hair. "Your hair, it's not suppose to grow." He gave me a funny look.

"What do you mean?"

"A Saiyan's hair never changes from the day they're born."

"I'm only part Saiyan, remember?" I smiled at him and ran my fingers through his shoulder length locks.

"I like it." Someone coughed loudly and we chuckled. Trunks gave me a quick peck on the lips and set me down. Before he turned back to the group he pointed to the front of my robe. I looked down and realized it had come open from neck to navel, revealing the flat muscled planes of my stomach and thankfully nothing else. I adjusted it for modesties sake and we turned to the group. The group was shuffling uncomfortably except Vegeta. He was glaring daggers at us. Bulma's plane landed on the lookout, breaking the tension in the group. She jumped out of the plane with baby Trunks in her arms.

"Hey guys!"

"Hey Bulma, what are you doing here?" Kakarrot asked her.

"I brought some supplies for you guys. The fight with Cell is going to be tough so I thought you guys could use some new combat suits." She pulled a capsule out of her pocket and it landed on the ground with a pop. She opened the silver case and pulled out five tiny white squares. Bulma tossed one to Vegeta with a wink and Gohan, Kakarrot, Trunks, and I took one for ourselves. As the guys changed into their suits, I turned my back and shimmied into the pants. I slipped the robe off after my bottom was covered and pulled the suit the rest of the way up my body, hoping I hadn't flashed anyone. After I was situated, I turned back to the group.

"So, all of these are Saiyan combat suits?" Trunks asked.

"More or less. I copied the one Vegeta wore on Namek and made a few comfort modifications." She looked around the group and noticed Piccolo and Tien hadn't taken one. "Hey, aren't you guys going to wear yours?"

"I am a Namek, not a Saiyan and I won't dress like one."

"That's right, I refuse to wear the same thing as Vegeta after all the terrible things he's done." Tien replied.

"There's no point in you putting one on Kakarrot. You won't need it." Vegeta said with his trademark smirk.

"And why is that? Do you plan on finishing Cell yourself?"

"Yes I do."

"Do you want me to take you over there with my instant transmission?"

"I don't need any help from you." Vegeta walked to the edge of the lookout. "So long." He said and jumped over the side.

"Oh boy, what an ego." Bulma said.

"I'll follow him." Trunks said. Kakarrot stopped him.

"Here are two senzou beans. I saved them for you and Vegeta."

"Thanks Goku." He slipped the senzou beans into his collar and held his hand out to me.

"Now Trunks, I want you to be careful and take care of Corbin."

"I will Mom." We dove off the lookout and I let myself freefall for a bit, feeling the wind in my hair. I peeked over at Trunks, unsure where to start. There were so many things I wanted to ask him. Up at the lookout I had been so overcome with joy that I acted on impulse, but now I wasn't sure.

"Trunks…" I said, nervously. He looked at me with a warm smile. "When you said you weren't sure what this is but you don't care, what did you mean?"

"Corbin, I really like you. You're fun, kind, strong. What I meant was I like being around you and I don't care if this is my time or yours. I just want to enjoy what we have, while we have it." I smiled sadly. He was right, even if we fell in love, he would have to leave eventually. I looked at the blasted pieces of islands we were flying over. 'This is was my heart will look like when he leaves.' I thought to myself. 'It's better to just stop this before it gets serious.' He grabbed my hand, pulling me out of my thoughts. "Please don't close me out." I removed my hand from his gently and looked out at the island on the horizon.

"There it is. Time to get your game face on." I said and flew at top speed to the island. We touched down on a cliff overlooking the battle between Vegeta and Cell. Vegeta was obviously the superior of the two. Cell was having trouble getting any punches and kicks in. I realized then that Vegeta was toying with him and I laughed at Cell's obvious frustration. As I watched the fight, I felt Trunks glance at me out of the corner of his eye. He sighed.

"Please don't shut me out. I want to be friends with you, if you don't want us to be anything else." I turned to him.

"I can't. Even if we're friends, it will turn into something else and then you'll leave. I'll die inside when you go. I'm sorry." The neck of my combat suit seemed to grow tighter as I suppressed tears. As I turned away from him, a single tear rolled a wet track down my cheek. I looked out at the island, trying to even my breathing. I noticed something in the trees below us, something unnaturally green. After suppressing my ki, I jumped off the cliff and made my way to it. I knew before I got there what I would find but I wasn't expecting Krillin to be with them. The two androids were together with Krillin standing a small distance away.

"Krillin, what are you doing? Cell is right over that mountain. Deactivate her all ready." He sighed heavily, looking at the ground. I looked down and saw the remote in pieces at his feet.

"I'm sorry, Corbin. I couldn't do it." I opened and closed my mouth, unsure of what to say. All of our hard work was laying in pieces and I felt the urge to cry again.

"Cell knows where you are! Get her out of here!" I heard Trunks yell above us. I looked up and found Trunks blocking Cell's path to us. How had he gotten past Vegeta? He was just mopping the floor with him.

"Vegeta, we had a deal. Now get this damned brat out of my way." Vegeta was suddenly there and attacked his own son. I turned back to Krillin.

"Get her out of here now!" I screamed at him. He grabbed 18 by the arm and tried to drag her away but she was trying to save 16.

"Come on, 16. I'm not leaving here without you." Cell was flying straight for us.

"Just fucking go!" I turned to him, changing into a super Saiyan, just in time to block his first attack. He slipped past my guard and punched me in the stomach, knocking the wind from me. He brought his fists up to give me a blow to the head but I rolled out of the way and kicked his legs out from under him. After back flipping out of the way, he charged me again. Blood flew from my mouth as he punched me square in the jaw and I fell to my knees, quickly rolling out of the way of his next attack. Trunks jumped in then and I took my time getting to my feet. Vegeta was back and aimed a ki blast right at Trunks' back. I jumped in the way just in time and crumpled to the ground in pain. I pushed myself up to sitting position and my chest plate fell off in pieces. I could feel that half of the spandex of my suit had been burned off in the blast and I touched my back, coming away with burned flesh and blood. The adrenaline of battle pushed the pain back and I pulled my arms out of the sleeves, tying them around my waist. Thankfully I had put the sports bra back on. Vegeta attacked Trunks again and Cell took the opportunity to fly toward the sun.

"Solar Flare!" Everything went white.

"18, get out of here!" I screamed into the chaos and I received a panicked shriek in response. He had her.

My vision came back in stages and finally I was able to see what had happened. The spot where 18 had been was a ball of electric blue energy and Trunks charged into it. He was quickly spit back out and I marveled at the amount of energy he was creating. The light show was over after a few minutes and Cell in his perfect form stood were it had been. He was slightly smaller and looked more human in his new form. Cell stretched his new body and threw a few practice punches at the air. Krillin screamed wordlessly and dove at Cell, kicking and punching him.

"Enough of this." Cell said after a few moments and kicked Krillin in the chest, sending him flying. Trunks rushed to his side and gave him a senzou bean.

"Vegeta is done for. He's hiding his true strength, just like you. I felt it when he kicked me. Vegeta can't beat him." I heard Krillin say to Trunks. I pushed myself to my feet, fighting the waves of pain that ensued, and made my way to Trunks. I reached them as Vegeta and Cell began their fight.

"Is this true?" I asked.

"Yes." He mumbled, looking at the ground.

"Then why are you still standing here? Go help him."

"Corbin, you know how proud he is. If I did that he'd never forgive me. If he truly can't beat Cell then I will step in when he falls." As I growled in frustration, a wave of pain knocked me to my knees.

"You're hurt, here." He said, reaching into his collar and pulling out a senzou bean. "It's the last one."

"I'm fine. If things go the way you think they will, Vegeta's going to need that." I sat back in the grass and watched the fight above. Vegeta was getting clumsy in his anger and finally he got a good punch in, sending Cell into the side of a mountain. Vegeta powered up and aimed a ki ball at him.

"Final Flash." He screamed and released the ball. When the dust and debris settled, I saw Vegeta had blasted Cell's top half to oblivion. I watched in horror and disgust as the quivering mass sprouted a new torso, then arms, and finally a head.

"You used a lot of energy with that last one, didn't you Vegeta?" Cell was suddenly in his face and punched him. Vegeta landed in a crumpled mass and turned back to normal.

"Krillin, take my father to Master Roshi's and give him the bean." Trunks said handing it to him.

"Krillin, do not fail this time." I said coldly. He nodded and the two of them took off for Cell. After Vegeta was safely out of the way Trunks laid into Cell, but after a bit it seemed that Trunks couldn't get a hit in. Cell got in a few good punches and then he knocked Trunks into the ground.

"Get up or I'll put you down permanently!" Cell yelled at him. Trunks appeared out of the crater and powered down to normal.

"I've failed, Cell. Finish me." Before I knew it, I was in the air flying to them. Cell landed in front of Trunks as I landed.

"How did you come to be this strong?" he asked Trunks.

"Why should I tell you, you're just going to kill me."

"If you had more time, could you become stronger?"

"I'm sure I could but Goku will be done with his training soon. He'll take you, no contest." Cell laughed.

"That's it! We'll have a tournament. I will fight your team one at a time and the last one standing will be the winner. Let's say ten days from now. Watch the TV, Trunks; I will give the details tomorrow." Cell laughed to himself once more and took to the sky. Vegeta and Krillin landed behind us.

"Where's Cell?" Vegeta demanded.

"I couldn't beat him." Trunks replied simply.

"Of course you couldn't. You're no match for him. Where did he go then?"

"He's gone." Trunks told Vegeta about the tournament.

"Well, I'm going back in that room for another day. Then I will finish Cell." Vegeta said confidently. The bushes close by rustled and we all turned to see Android 16 drag himself towards us.

"Please, take me to someone that can repair me. I will help you fight."

"No, you are a plague to the Earth." Trunks said. Krillin stepped forward and helped the android up.

"What do you think?" Krillin asked looking at me. I walked slowly to the android and looked inside the gapping hole in his head. The circuits were scorched and I had trouble seeing the extent of the damage.

"Let's get him back to the lab. I'll do a full workup and see what we can do."

"Thank you." He said and Krillin took to the air supporting the android. I tried to lift off but failed. The pain was worse now that the adrenaline was gone.

"I'll carry you back." Trunks said, scooping me up in his arms. He cradled me carefully so that he didn't touch any of the burns on my back and I fell asleep in his arms.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: don't own it, don't make money off it. enjoy and review. let me know if i'm on the right track.

I opened my eyes as Trunks carried me into an exam room at the compound. He set me down gently on the table in the center of the room and looked at my wounds.

"The skins already started to regenerate but you've still got a lot missing. Lay down on your stomach." I didn't want to be in here with him. I just wanted some distance. How was I supposed to get over him when he wouldn't leave me be?

"Where's Dr. Brief?"

"He's doing the preliminary evaluation on 16 and everyone else is busy." He said from across the room, getting gauze and antiseptic. I nodded and lay down. He cleaned me up and bandaged the wound quickly, never once touching my skin. Once he was finished I got up and looked at my back in the mirror. The bandage stretched from side to side, mid back to the scar where my tail had once been. I felt him move closer to me and when I looked up he was right in front of me. He pushed my bangs out of my eyes and leaned toward me, kissing me gently.

"We could make this work." He said, simply, and left the room. I sighed and left too.

As I walked down the hall, I was stopped by Bulma's secretary.

"Miss Varitang, you need to change if you're going to be down here. We have investors in today." I walked past her, thanking her, and continued to my room. As I turned the corner Trunks was standing there.

"Varitang, is that your last name?" he asked. I walked past him and he followed.

"Yes, Saiyans are named after their fathers. My father was Varitang, advisor to King Vegeta." I answered entering the main house and walking up the stairs.

"So, your father was my grandfather's advisor?"

"Yeah."

"So how did he end up on Frieza's ship?"

"He was ordered to take a small band of survivors to a ship and get off the planet right before it blew. King Vegeta fell with his kingdom and my father's ship was captured by Frieza." I walked into my room and into the bathroom, washing up with a wash cloth quickly.

"Did you have any brothers or sisters?" he asked from the doorway as I walked to the closet. I paused in the doorway to the closet.

"Yeah." I answered simply and walked into the closet. I stripped the dirty combat suit off and my underwear, putting on clean ones. I dressed into a pair of nylons, a black pencil skirt, and a white cotton blouse and grabbed my heels. I sat on my bed and put the heels on. Trunks was admiring my father's sword hanging on the wall.

"You said you had siblings?"

"Yeah, a half brother, his name was Nappa. He was your father's advisor."

"I remember my mom telling me about him. He died on Namek right?" Trunks asked.

"Yeah."

"Dinner's ready." The intercom by the door squeaked. I pulled my hair into a bun and grabbed my lab coat and name badge off the dresser. I brushed past him and walked down the hall.

"Mom never told me how he died." Trunks said as I crossed the threshold of the lab.

"Your father killed him." I answered quietly. "Now, if you're going to continue to follow me, you'll need to change into different clothes." I turned and walked down the hall, leaving him behind. The lighting in the observation room was dim as I entered. Dr. Brief was sitting behind a group of computer, watching them intently.

"Dr. Brief, go eat dinner. I'll watch over it."

"Ah, Corbin, thank you very much. I'm starving. The MRI's an hour into it. If I'm not back when it's done, start the CAT scan." He marked the switch over on his notepad and got up, moving to the door.

"Enjoy your dinner. Don't worry about hurrying back. I'll take care of the CAT and call you when I'm done." I said sitting down.

"Would you like me to bring you something?"

"No, thank you. I'll be fine." He nodded and left. I was alone now, thankfully. I looked at the three monitors in front of me. The one on the left was for heartbeat, oxygen saturation, and temperature. The one in the middle displayed the MRI images and the one on the right was to monitor brain waves. I looked over Dr. Brief's notes to get an idea of what 16's baseline was. According to the notes, his vitals hadn't changed since the beginning of the test.

"16, this is Corbin. Are you comfortable in there?" I said into the intercom, looking through the glass into the exam room.

"Yes, Corbin, thank you." He replied, monotonously.

An hour passed and finally the MRI was done. I marked it on the notepad and moved into the exam room. I moved the portable MRI machine away and pulled the CAT machine into place over 16's head.

"Are you doing all right?" I asked as I set the machine up.

"Yes, thank you." After the machine was set up, I went back to the office. After switching programs on the middle monitor for the CAT scan, I marked the start of the test on the notepad.

"What exactly have you been tell my son?" I whipped around and found Vegeta standing in the dark corner behind me. The tone of his voice told me he wasn't happy.

"What do you mean, Prince Vegeta?" I asked, motioning to the chair next to me for him to sit down.

"He is questioning my motives for killing Nappa. What did you tell him?" He said, staying where he was.

"All I said to him was that I had a half brother and you killed him, nothing more. I didn't bear witness to the events; I told him only what I was told."

"My motives are my own and I will not explain them to anyone." He said grabbing me by my neck and squeezing. "I will not have you telling my son anymore about a dead race." He let go of me and I dropped to my knees, wincing in pain as the skin on my back stretched.

"I bet your forgiveness, Prince Vegeta. I forgot myself." My voice was a harsh rasp and he left the room. I sat back down in my chair, rubbing my neck to try and ease the pain. The clock read ten as the CAT ended and I marked the time.

"We're done for tonight, 16. Someone will be back in the morning after we review your test results. Until then, you are quarantine to this room. Do you need anything before I go?" I asked, moving the machines away from the bed.

"I do not require anything, thank you." He replied.

"Ok, if you do press the button on the intercom and ask for one of us." He looked at the intercom and nodded. I left the lab, locking the door behind me, and went to the kitchen to eat. The house was dark and quiet and, as I walked into the kitchen, I noticed someone with their head down on the counter. I opened the fridge and found a plate inside with my name on it. After putting it in the microwave to warm it up, I poked the person in the arm, almost knocking him off his stool. He lifted his head and I saw the lavender locks in the sparse moonlight.

"I'm sure there's a bed upstairs for you." He yawned, stretching his arms above his head.

"I thought you might like some company while you eat." The microwave dinged and I took my plate out, setting it on the counter next to him. I sat down on the stool next to him and ate my dinner in the dark.

"So, we covered your father and your brother, what about your mom? What was she like?"

"I'm sorry, Trunks, but I will tell you no more about that. Prince Vegeta told me to say nothing else." I got up and put my empty plate in the sink.

"What? Why?"

"The first thing you need to remember about your father is not his pride; you must first remember that he is a king. Even though he may never have been crowned, he was born and raised to lead our people. He mourns heavily for what we could've been and today when you questioned his motives about Nappa, you reminded him that he had a hand in killing one of the last of us. I have never asked him why he killed my brother because it won't change anything. My family was born and bred to serve the royal family." I sat back down on the stool, sighing heavily. I was tired and my back itched and burned.

"I'm sorry I got you in trouble."

"You didn't know. I on the other hand have known your father a very long time. I should've known to keep my mouth shut." We were silent for a while.

"Would you like to go for a walk with me?" he asked.

"Sure." I did need to stretch my legs after sitting behind the computer for so long. We got up and left through the back door in the kitchen, heading out into the back yard. We walked to the tree line and turned, looking at the beautiful lights of the compound and the city behind it.

"I've never seen it look this good." He remarked. "It's always been a pile of rubble that barely resembled a house." He sighed. "It'll look like this again, I swear it." He whispered. I had the terrible urge to comfort him as I looked at his downcast profile. I put my hand gently on his shoulder and squeezed.

"I thought about you a lot in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber." He said without looking at me. "I thought about how we could make this work." I took my hand back and rubbed my forehead.

"I don't want to talk about it, Trunks." I started walking again along the tree line.

"Please, Corbin, I need you to hear me out." I felt like I owed him that since I'd pretty much stomped on his heart.

"Fine."

"If this doesn't work out, you could always come home with me. It's not like you could never come back."

"I had my turn in your world, Trunks; I didn't make it. Don't you think people would be suspicious about a grave stone that says Corbin Varitang and a person living with you with the same name? And what would happen when I die? Would I sit on Snake Way for the rest of my time because King Yemma can't let me in twice?" I sighed. "A lifetime with you won't be enough, I can feel it." My face was wet with tears and I wiped them away, angry with myself for showing weakness. I looked up and found him standing in front of me. We had walked all the way to the gardens at the front of the house and I hadn't realized it. He was smiling at me for some reason.

"Everyone in the universe that dies goes through King Yemma. Do you really think he's going to remember one name?" he laughed and I cracked a smile. "I'll deny you nothing. Tell me what you want and it's yours." He said, pushing my bangs out of my eyes and running his thumb down my cheek. The dam that held my feelings broke and I hugged him tightly.

"You." I whispered against his shoulder. "I want you." I felt his muscles relax a tad and he hugged me back, kissing the top of my head and then catching my lips. We continued to walk through the gardens, hand in hand, for a bit before he stopped.

"If I promise not to say anything to my father, will you tell me about your mother?" I reached out for Vegeta's energy signal and found it in his room with Bulma and the baby.

"My mother. I miss her very much. She was one of the survivors that my father saved before the fall. She was just a child then and she fell in love with my father. Nappa's mother had died a few years before the fall and at the age of seventeen, my mother had me. She was only twenty three when Frieza killed her." I yawned, covering my mouth.

"Are you tired?" he asked me.

"Very and I have to be up early tomorrow to got over the test results with Bulma and Dr. Brief." We walked back into the house and he escorted me up to my room.

"Well, goodnight." Trunks said and kissed me.

"Goodnight." He walked down the hall to the room next to mine and entered as I walked into mine. Once inside my closet I stripped down and threw my dirty clothes into the laundry chute. I put on a tank top and a pair of shorts and lay down in bed. 'Should I really be doing this?' I thought to myself. 'Getting involved with someone during impending doom, that can only spell disaster. I just feel that something's going to go wrong.' I sighed, rolling over on my side. With Piccolo fused with Kami, there were no more dragonballs. No more dragonballs meant no more wishes. 'What have I gotten myself into?' I wondered to myself as sleep took over.

I woke up the next morning early. Before taking a shower, I peeled the bandage off my back. The open wound was gone, replaced by pink, tender skin. I chose a pair of black slacks and a low, v neck, crimson blouse, dressing quickly. I pulled on a pair of heeled boots and ran down to the lab. I opened the door and started to greet Dr. Brief when I realized it wasn't him. Trunks was sitting at the table with Bulma, wearing a pair of black slacks and a white button down shirt. As I walked around the table to get to my seat I noticed he had a lab coat and a name badge on also. I looked at him, nodding my approval. Dr. Brief came in and handed us all a folder, taking his seat amongst us. The test results from last night were in the folder with Dr. Brief's notes.

"He's not human based like 17. That's going to make this very difficult." Bulma said.

"But he does have unlimited energy with no traceable signal like 17 and 18." Trunks added.

"Corbin, you're my wiring and components expert. Tell me what you see." Dr. Brief said. I studied the pictures of the inside of 16's head.

"A lot of his right hemisphere has been blown away and it looks like his motor function cortex has been severely damaged. I can replicate it but I would need someone else to program it." I said.

"Well, that won't be a problem. I'll get started on the coding if you'll get started on the replication." Bulma said to me. I put my folder down and looked at Dr. Brief.

"We're going to need the main lab to do this as quickly as possible. Can you arrange that with the investors still being here?" I asked him.

"I'll see what I can do. We'll meet here after breakfast." He said and we went to the main house. By the time we had finished eating, Dr. Brief had commandeered the main lab, so to speak, and we got to work immediately.

Time flew past quickly, until it was almost lunch. The phone at my work station rang, almost sending me out of my seat.

"Hello."

"Cell's on TV." I recognized the voice as Yamcha's and ran from my desk to Trunks and Bulma across the room.

"Cell's on TV." I repeated and we ran from the room back into the main house. Everyone was standing in the living room watching the TV intently as we entered.

"Greetings, I have a message for the planet Earth. My name is Cell and while most of you won't recognize this form, some of you may remember me as," he voice changed to the raspy, high pitched voice of his imperfect form. "The monster of Nicky Town. I have achieved my perfect form and I must now find a way to test it. In order to do that I will be hosting a tournament. Let's call it The Cell Games. I invite all of Earth's fighters to join me in the ring nine days from now. I will fight all of you one on one and the last one standing will be the victor. There will of course be rules, if you land outside the ring or if you stay down for ten seconds, you're out. Oh, and I will try to avoid this, but if you die your turn is forfeit. So, please, join me in nine days at noon in area S .5 twenty eight miles Northeast of Eastern City. One last thing, just to give you an idea of what you're up against," He put his hand out to the side and blasted a hole in the building. The ki blast finally dissipated about a mile outside the city. "See you there." The TV went black and we all stood in the living room, silent for a long time.

"It's about time we head back to the lookout. Kakarrot and Gohan will be done soon." Trunks, Vegeta, and I made it up to the lookout in record time. I was sitting on the edge looking down at the Earth with Trunks beside me when I heard Vegeta and Piccolo arguing.

"Fine, Namek, you may go next but I intend on using the rest of the days for myself."

"That won't happen, Vegeta. After forty eight hours the entrance will disappear and you'll be locked in there forever." Piccolo explained. Vegeta growled in aggravation.

"Fine, I will go in after you and then if Trunks wants to go back in he can do so after me." Trunks turned to his father.

"Corbin and I will go in together."


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: to be honest, i wasn't sure i was going to finish this story after some comments made by some people. but then i remember, i wrote this for me. it's always nice if someone reads and likes your stories but thats not why write them. i write for me, to make me happy. so if your thinking about leaving a review about her "Mary-Sueness" and how much you hate this story, go ahead, i don't give a shit anymore. so without further ado... welcome to chapter 9. there will be two to three more chapters in this story. so the end is near. this chapter gets a little hot toward the middle, nothing too vulgar though. enjoy.

_"Corbin and I will go in together."_

The words reverberated through my head a few times before I finally caught their meaning. Vegeta and Piccolo stood before us, motionless, waiting for more of the sentence. I looked at Trunks, also waiting for him to say more.

"What?" I asked, when he didn't continue.

"You and I will go in together. While I was here yesterday, Piccolo told me about your new technique. I think I could really help you develop it."

"I forbid this." Vegeta said simply.

"Well, are you going to help her with it?" Trunks asked him in a very defiant tone.

"You watch your tone with me, boy. Remember who you're talking to." Vegeta growled, pointing a finger at Trunks.

"So what this is coming down to is that according to Piccolo, you need a Saiyan to develop this with. Goku will be busy with Gohan. You, Father, will be busy with yourself, so that just leaves me. I'm willing to put my training on hold to help. I think this could be the key, especially if it comes down to the wire and Cell is more powerful than any of us imagined." Vegeta stormed away, seething.

"I think it's a good idea in concept, but how much training will you actually get done in there once the door closes." Piccolo said and walked away. I sighed, looking back over to Trunks.

"Piccolo's right. I don't think this will work."

"Don't answer right now. Let's wait until the time comes and see how we feel about it then." The power levels of Kakarrot and Gohan washed over us in thunderous waves and Trunks stood, following the others to the door to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. As the others walked away, I took the opportunity and jumped off the lookout, flying toward Capsule Corp.

The only solid thought I my mind as I flew was that I wasn't going into that time chamber, not with anyone. Trunks was wrong; from what I felt coming out of that chamber, I wasn't the key. They wouldn't be needing me with power like that. I landed lightly in the back yard and walked into the lab. If I was going to be of any use to them, it was going to be in here, working on the mechanical side of things.

I sat down at my work station and looked down into the magnifying glass at the compact motherboard I was working on. Someone placed their hand on my shoulder from behind and I jumped.

"You look like you need to talk." Bulma said, quietly, sitting down on the stool beside my desk. "What's wrong, honey?"

"Lot's of things." I answered, sighing. "Mainly your son." She nodded her head and waited for me to go on. "I just don't understand what's come over me. He's only been here for, what, four or five days and I'm infatuated with him. I mean, I practically jumped his bones when he came out of the time chamber for no other reason than the fact that he looked hot all torn up and bloody." I stopped, putting my hands to my face and leaning my elbows on the desk. I pulled in a breathe of air and expelled it, trying to erase the memory of him like that.

"At the risk of sounding like a creep, my son is hot. You can't be faulted for feeling this way."

"But it's all physical. I don't know a damn thing about him except for the fact that he's your son. Don't you think feelings like this should at least have some emotional base?" I asked her.

"Corbin, I don't even know when Vegeta's birthday is, let alone how old he is." She answered after a bit. "You probably know more about him than I do. But the point is we're building an emotional connection out of something that started out purely physical. I think you need to stop running away from it and try to build something emotional out of it."

"I just feel like this is bad timing. I mean, if it does turn into something else he's just going to leave. He's not going to stay here with his mother still in the future. And where will that leave me?" I wondered aloud.

"How does the quote go? 'It's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.' Something like that. Think about it." She stood to leave when I stopped her with my hand on her arm.

"Vegeta will be thirty five next month, June thirtieth." She smiled down at me and gripped my hand tightly before leaving.

I was able to get the replication of the right hemisphere done by night fall and as I started on the motor function cortex I felt someone coming closer and closer to my work bench. I looked around but found no one, until I turned back to my work bench. Vegeta was sitting on the stool looking at me, almost studying me.

"What?" I asked after he said nothing.

"You are not going into that room alone with him." he said, quietly. I sighed, sitting down in my chair.

"Why shouldn't I?"

"Because I forbid you too." He answered. My anger peaked at his comment.

"You forbid me too? Why are you meddling in my personal affairs? You don't give a rat's ass about me. Your search for infinite power sure has changed you. It's turned you into something cold hearted. You would've never treated me like this back on Frieza's ship. We were equals; anything you learned, you taught me. You and Nappa were like father figures, Raditz was a dumb, weak brother, what happened to that? What happened to you?" As soon as the words left my mouth, I wished they hadn't. Vegeta sat on the stool staring coldly at me, his body shaking in anger. He stood and turned to leave.

"I should've killed you a long time ago. You're nothing but a disrespectful whelp." I sighed, tears welling in my eyes, and turned back to the work in front of me. With tweezers in one hand and the soddering gun in the other, I tried to fit the small pieces into the correct spots but my hands kept shaking. I laid the tools down and swiped at the tears on my face, angrily. He was right; I had been disrespectful toward him. I realized then that all he had ever wanted to do was protect me. It was nothing against his own son; he just didn't want me to get hurt. I reached out, searching for Vegeta's power signature, and found him upstairs with Bulma. I wanted to apologize but I wasn't going to interrupt him. As I pulled my senses back, I felt Trunks standing near me.

"Why'd leave the lookout so abruptly earlier?" he asked.

"I just needed some alone time." I answered in a whisper.

"Are you all right? Your eyes are all red."

"I'm fine." I said, looking away from him.

"If you're upset about the whole time chamber thing we don't have to."

"Are you attracted to me because I'm the only female Saiyan left or is it because I'm the only one in your age group?" I blurted out.

"I've told you why I'm attracted to you and neither of those are the reason. Listen, I'm not trying to get you into that time chamber to be alone with you. I'm just trying to help you."

"For what? I'm not powerful enough to fight. I'll just get in the way." My chair clattered to the floor as I pushed out of it and I turned to walk away. He grabbed my arm and pulled me against him.

"Now stop it. It's not about strength anymore; even Goku knows he can't win against Cell. This is about tactics now and we need all the advantages we can get. That includes this newfound gift of yours." My head swam with the close proximity to him; his warm sweet breath grazing my cheek. I grabbed him by the front of the shirt and pulled him down to my lips, kissing him passionately. He growled, pulling me more firmly against him, and backed me up to the edge of the table. His arm left my waist and I heard all the plans and components clatter to the floor. I turned, putting him against the table, and pushed him onto it, crawling up over him. The sound of ripping cloth resonated through the lab as I tore his shirt from his chest. He pushed me off of him and stood, grabbing the hem of my sweater and pulling it over my head. The cool air of the lab caressed my bare shoulders and a chill went up my back. I grabbed his belt, leading him out of the lab and up the stairs. We fought for dominance, smashing each other into the walls and fighting with teeth, tongue, and lips. He slammed me up against my bedroom door and fumbled with the door knob, trying to open it. He growled into my mouth in frustration and pushed the door open, breaking the door frame in his haste. I felt Vegeta stir in the room across the hall but he settled back, curling around Bulma.

Trunks pushed me into the room, roughly, and slammed the door shut behind him. I licked and nipped down the smooth planes of his abs and as I got to his belt line, he grabbed me by my hair. He pulled me to his lips and I growled, pushing him back toward the bed. My hands went to his belt and I unfastened it, tugging it through the loops until it was free. He sat down on the edge of the bed and put his hands on my hips, moving his hands closer to the button on my slacks. His fingers flicked the button and my pants fluttered to the floor. I kicked my pants and boots away and stood before him in my panties and bra.

His eyes roved up and down my body and he smiled. He pulled me to straddle him and he kissed and traced every scar on my body. I reached between us and flicked open the button on his trousers. I moved off of him to lie on the bed as he stood and took his pants and shoes off. His muscles rippled as he lay down, covering my body with his. As he kissed me, his hands found the clasp of my bra, undoing it and sliding it down my bare arms. After he'd tossed my bra away, he ran his hands back up my arms and down my sides, stopping to push my small pert breast together. He lowered his mouth to my chest and sucked one pert nipple into his cool wet mouth after the other. He kissed his way back up to my lips, my hands kneading his sides.

"Are you sure?" he asked against my lips.

"Yes, I'm sure." I answered. The feel of him grabbing the front of my panties and jerking them from my body, tore a moan from my throat and my back arched. My eyes fluttered open and I noticed the red full moon through the French doors leading to the balcony. I faintly felt Trunks kissing my body as the Blutz waves poured through the window and soaked into my skin. Both the pleasure waves from Trunks' minstrations and the waves of the full moon tore gasps and moans from me as I thrashed about on the bed. His release followed at the heels of mine and we collapsed onto the bed in a sweating mass.

The irresistible pull of the moon caught my eyes again as Trunks and I lay on the bed kissing and licking the sweat from each other. I tried to think back to the last time the moon had affected me so and couldn't remember past the accident that had cost me my tail so long ago. I had been cornered by a mob on a distant planet at the age of ten and had released an artificial Blutz wave to defeat them. One of the bastards had cut my tail off and once I'd regained consciencness, I'd enjoyed killing them all. I looked into the moon's bright glare with immunity now and pulled Trunks' attention from me to the moon.

"Do you feel the pull of it?" I asked him.

"Of course I do. It's making me crazy for you." He replied, burying his face in my neck.

"I guess it's a good thing that we don't have…" A terrible pain racked through my body and my shriek was echoed by Trunks. I knew that pain; it was the first sign of the change. I used every ounce of my self control to suppress the change as I grabbed Trunks and flew out the balcony doors. As I flew, trying desperately to find a secluded spot, I felt the hair on Trunks' arm grow into fur, purple fur. Oh, how my ancestors must be rolling in their graves; a purple Oozaru, never in Saiyan history. I dropped Trunks to the ground after I had found a place far enough from civilization and relinquished my control to the change; loving the feel of it and not remembering anything afterward.

I awoke the next morning with the burning desert sun beating down on my bare back. Fire burned through every muscle and tendon in my body as I sat up, sand sticking to my sweat glazed skin. Something small hit my shoulder and fell into the sand beside me. As I looked to see what had hit me, I noticed a brown fuzzy tail wrapped around my waist. Tentatively, I touched it and it unraveled from my waist, swishing back and forth behind me. A smile formed on my lips; I was whole again. I looked to my side and found Vegeta sitting under an outcropping near me.

"Get dressed." He said, sternly, and I looked down at the combat suit he'd thrown at me. I brushed as much of the sand off as I could and pulled the tight, spandex suit on, tearing a small hole for my tail to fit through. I flopped down next to him in the shade and as I searched the dunes, I found Trunks some distance from us. I sighed, sitting next to him in silence for some time before I spoke.

"I want to apologize for disrespecting you last night." He scoffed at me and I was silent again for a long time. "What are you doing out here?" I asked him quietly.

"I came out to make sure the two of you didn't kill anyone." I nodded.

"I saw a red full moon last night. If memory serves me right, Earth doesn't have a moon anymore."

"You are correct; Earth does not have a moon. The moon you saw last night is something that is genetically encoded into every Saiyan. It's what we used to call the mating moon." He was silent for a while before he spoke again. "I'm off to the lookout. Make sure you and your new mate are there tomorrow at noon." I nodded and caught the extra combat suit he tossed at me. He stood and flew off without another word. I rose to my feet and walked across the dunes to where Trunks lay asleep. I nudge his nude sleeping form with the golden tip of my combat boot and he grunted, rolling over and looking up at me with a pained smile.

"Dear Kami, what happened last night? I feel like I've been run over by a semi-truck." I handed him the combat suit.

"Get dressed. I'll tell you on the way back." As he dressed, I noticed the purple fuzzy tail wrapped around his waist. He touched it the same way I had mine and finished getting dressed. "What do you remember from last night?" I asked him once we were in the air.

"I remember making love to you and the red moon; after that, not much."

"The red moon we saw last night was the Saiyan mating moon. I think it's the reason we've been infatuated with each other the past few days." I paused, searching for what to say to him next but he nodded.

"Do you regret what we did last night?" He asked, quietly. I thought for a moment before taking his hand.

"No, I don't regret it." After arriving at CC, we ate a large brunch and headed up stairs to shower and change before going to the lab. The broken splinters of wood had been cleaned off the floor both from the bedroom door and the balcony door. The contractor was still working on replacing the French doors that I'd broken in my haste last night, so I grabbed clean clothes and took them into the bathroom with me. I showered quickly and went to the lab.

My work station was a complete mess. Everything that had been on the table was now on the floor along with Trunks' ripped up shirt and my sweater. I got down on my knees and started picking up the tiny components off the floor. A long whistle was let out behind me and I turned to find Bulma leaning against a shelf, smiling.

"So, what did you two do last night?" she asked me with a knowing smile on her lips. I sat back on my heels and looked up at her.

"Your son and I mated last night." I told her. Her knowing smile turned into a pleased grin.

"Good for you, sweetheart." She said, quietly, and walked away. I finished cleaning up the mess and sat down in my chair, shuffling through papers. I had drawn a map of what components needed to go where on the motherboard for the motor function cortex but I couldn't find it now. I gave up the search and started arranging the components without soddering them on. I tried a few different ways to arrange the pieces but I couldn't get them to fit. I threw the tweezers onto the desk in frustration.

"Chlytia chan cacha!" Trunks was, suddenly, behind me and placed his hands on my arms.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"I can't get this fucking thing figured out. I had a map laid out for it last night but I can't find it now." He rubbed his hands up and down my arms, looking at the pieces on the table. He picked up the tweezers.

"Well what if we move this, here, and these, over there." He said, rearranging the pieces. "And now we can fit this one here." And just like that, he'd pieced together the puzzle that I'd been trying to figure out for the last hour.

"Thank you." I said, picking up the soddering gun. He watched me finish the cortex, kissing my temple and neck until I giggled.

"You were yelling something when I came in. What was it?"

"I called it a piece of shit in Saiyan." He laughed.

"Let's go out for dinner tonight; some place fancy." I turned and kissed him on the lips.

"Ok." I replied.

"Great, I'll pick you up in three hours." He kissed me once more and left me to finish up.

I delivered the parts to Bulma's desk and found her leaning back in her chair, staring off into space.

"Hey girlie, what are you still doing down here? Don't you have a big date to get ready for?" she asked me as I set the pieces down.

"I still have an hour left; I don't need that much time to get ready."

An hour later, I walked into the living room where Trunks and Bulma were playing with the baby. He stopped playing with the baby and looked at me, smiling. I twirled, showing off the dress I'd worn to my welcoming party three years ago, and he stood, offering me his arm.

"You two have fun." Bulma said with a sly smile and we waved, walking out of the house. I pulled the small gray capsule from my bag and, after clicking the top, the car appeared in front of us. As Trunks opened the passenger door for me, I walked to the driver side and got into the black sports car.

"Are you getting in?" I asked him from inside the car. He, finally got in a buckled up.

"I thought I would drive." He commented as I started the car and drove toward the restaurant.

"I don't think so. Your mother got me this for my sixteenth birthday and no one but me has ever driven it."

"Oh." He looked away forlornly, as if I had just emasculated him. I pulled to the side of the road and looked at him.

"You know, I've never driven this in heels and I'm having trouble with the clutch. Do you mind taking over?" I asked him.

"You don't have to do this." He said to me.

"Do what? I'm serious." I lied to placate him and he smiled, opening his door as I opened mine. We switched sides and he drove to the restaurant.

"So what was it like having my father as your guardian?" he asked me after our appetizers had been served. I took a bite of my calamari and thought about it.

"Well, it was nothing like your human customs." I said with a chuckle. "Think about what he does now, the training constantly, and multiply that by seven years." I took another bite of calamari. "But in all honesty, I owe everything I am today to your father. If he hadn't taken me in after my parents died, I'd probably be dead now too. Being a female on Frieza's ship was no picnic. Most of them were sex slaves or maids. Being in one of the most feared gangs on the ship sure did help avoid that."

"What happened after he left to come here?" He asked after taking a bite of his appetizer.

"Raditz was the first to leave. It was kind of weird not having the four of us together. Usually, Frieza would save the hardest missions for us so the four of us would be dispatched together. But because Raditz's mission was a family matter, Frieza sent him alone. After a year of him being gone, we got a message from him saying that he'd found his brother but there was a complication and he wasn't strong enough to complete the mission. So, Vegeta and Nappa were dispatched as back up. I wasn't sent because I had show an aptitude toward science and was going to start an apprenticeship under the head scientist of the ship." I paused. "It took me a long time to realize they weren't coming back." I said, growing silent. Our entrees where served and I thanked the waiter with a smile. "So, what was it like growing up with just your mother?" I asked after we'd finished eating.

"She couldn't have done a better job, in my opinion. But I wasn't really alone I had Gohan, until the androids took him away too. That's all behind us now. I'm strong enough to defeat the androids now." I took his hand and smiled at him.

"You know, I can't help feeling a bit guilty. I mean, I've spent my whole life with your father and you never knew him." I whispered, not meeting his eyes.

"We can't change the past now. The only thing we can do is look to the future, and I'm going to make sure that the baby of this timeline never goes a day without seeing his father." He paid the check and we went home to Capsule Corp. We made love again, this time without the red moon to distract us. I felt safe and secure with him; I hadn't felt that way since my parents had died. As I lay in the warm circle of his embrace, I realized that my subconscious has already made the decision for me; I was going to the future with him.

We made it to the lookout a little before noon. Gohan came running up to us, hand in hand with a little green Namek.

"Trunks, Corbin, I want you to meet my friend, Dende. He's come from New Namek to be our new guardian." Trunks and I extended our hands, one after the other, to shake hands with the new arrival. The young boys ran off to play and within the half hour we felt the door of the time chamber open; Vegeta's power signature beating over us. We all walked to the door and found Vegeta walking out, bleeding and tattered as he had been before.

"I guess I'm next." Trunks said to me in a low voice. Vegeta stopped in front of us.

"You're going in with him, brat." He said, looking at me. My brows knitted together in confusion and I opened my mouth to question him, quickly shutting it.

"Yes, Prince Vegeta." I said, bowing to him. Trunks and I walked to the large wooden door and I looked back at the crowd surrounding us once more. The door hissed shut behind us and I was momentarily blinded by the gleaming white.

"Don't you think you should tell them why you sent her in there? He could hurt her seriously before they figure it out." Piccolo said, stepping closer to Vegeta to speak to him only.

"They will figure it out for themselves soon enough." Vegeta replied.


End file.
